Lightbringer
by LethalFroggie
Summary: It's been 4 years since Sora was seen at the Door of Kingdom Hearts, and the Nobody and the former residents of Hollow Baston are running out of places to look for him. So they hire a mercenary to bring in Ellos, a Forgotten who may know how to find him.
1. Chpt 1: The Face of the Waters

Lightbringer; Chpt. 1- The Face of the Waters  
  
Adalai- alright Zena, disclaimer!  
  
Zena, muse of tragedy- Adalai does not own Kingdom Hearts, it's characters, worlds, ect. Those belong to Square and Disney. Adalai does not own free magic, either. That belongs to Garth Nix. However, Adalai ownz this fic, Asher, Ellos, Strife, Yul, the plotline, any new concepts or ideas, and fills my food bowl and cleans my litter box, and that's what matters!  
  
Author's notes at the bottom  
... ... ... ... ...

**Research Report #1  
**  
_A note on ages..._

In this story, the word World will only be used to denotate Kingdom Hearts, the Present World, and the In-Between World. The word Age will be used to denotate smaller worlds inside Kingdom Hearts and the Present World, for example, Wonderland, Tarzan's jungle, and Traverse Town would all be ages. This is to prevent confusion.  
  
_A note on systems..._

Ages in the present world are divided into systems, or rings. Systems vary widely in size, from small (traverse system- 13 worlds) to medium sized (Disney kingdom system- 375) to large (twilight system- 1,456) Each system has a name; the systems the story will take place in are traverse (the original 13 worlds of KH1), Disney Kingdom (the home age of King Mickey and all the worlds he rules over) and Twilight (where Twilight town is located). Not every world in all these systems will be visited during the course of the story. The largest ages are in the center, with the ages decreasing in size the farther from the center you go, with the smallest being on the very edge of the system. The biggest world, the hub age, is in the very center. When an age is destroyed, the survivors go to the hub age, and the hub age increases in size as needed. 2 examples of this type of age are Twilight and Traverse Town. However, some of the smaller ages, called edge ages, are so close to the edges of nearby systems that survivors of that age can actually end up on an edge age of the nearby system, and not the hub age of their own system. An example of this type of age is Destiny Islands, or Hollow Baston, or the Final Fantasy string of ages in the Twilight system. (This is the reason why all the Final Fantasy characters come from Hollow Baston and Destiny Islands; when their edge worlds where destroyed in the twilight system, the ended up on the edge worlds of Traverse system, specifically Destiny Islands and Hollow Baston.)  
  
_A note on names..._

All ages have 2 names; common and scientific. The hub age's common name is the name of the system followed by "Town" (Ex. Twilight Town). The Scientific name of the hub world would be the name of the system, followed by "Prime" (Ex. Twilight Town would be Twilight Prime). A common and edge Age's common name would whatever it is commonly called. (Ex. Wonderland). It's scientific name would by the system name followed by a roman numeral showing its place from the hub age (Ex. The second age from the hub ages would be called Twilight II, the third age Twilight III, ect.) Edge ages scientific names would be the system name it was in, the system it bordered, followed by the roman numeral showing it's place from the hub age. (Ex. Destiny Islands would be Traverse/Twilight XIII). Scientific names are only used in navigation and by the Nobody.  
... ... ... ... ...

_I just wanted to be left alone...  
_  
Ellos sighed and slumped down lower, or at least as low as her position allowed her to. She was kneeling on a metal floor, her legs tucked under her, her arms held horizontally, straight out, and parallel to her shoulders. Iron manacles extended down from the ceiling of a 7 ft. square metal cell, attaching to her arms and keeping them in place. On her upper left arm, a plastic bracelet pumped out her blood and replaced it with a solution of nano-machines and antifreeze.  
  
Slowly, the cell around her began to cool. Eventually, the temperature would drop down to near freezing, sending her into a deep sleep, with the antifreeze in her blood being the only think keeping the water in body from freezing and killing her. She stood (or sat) facing a metal hatch, with 2 inch thick vertical bars.  
  
On the other side which stood Asher.  
  
Every person has a weakness, this Ellos knew. Asher (or Lasher, his nickname, derived from his weapons of choice, two cat o' nine tails 1) had, on his home age, been a mercenary. But, when his age was destroyed, he built a gummi ship of his own and became a high-paid mercenary who brought in people who fled to other ages for cash rewards from private parties.  
  
"So," Asher said, "Ellos, I hope your feeling good after your long, long vacation on that quiet, backwards age you picked. Think of how lucky you are!" He said sarcastically. "after your vacation, you get to be escorted home with me, the most famous head hunter in this system, and meet some of the most influential and dangerous people of the Twilight system. I'd be careful; you wouldn't want to make any of them mad, now would you?" More sarcasm.  
  
There it is, Ellos thought. His flaw. Asher was like one of those comic book villains who, once they had the hero in their grasp, instead of just killing them, wined on about how clever they where and revealed all their plans, or devised overtly complex plans to kill the hero and eventually failing because of said complexities in plan instead of just shooting the hero or something simple or foolproof like that. Asher had an ego so big you could practically see it bursting out of his head, and he loved to stoke that ego. This was why bursting his bubble would be so much fun.  
  
Both of them looked at each other, calculating. Ellos looked at the rest of the crew that Asher had brought with him. They seemed...nervous, scared even. She could smell it, see it on their faces, the way they moved, in their auras. She wondered if Asher had told them what had happened to his first crew. But this crew wasn't like the first one; they where experienced head- hunters. She was surprised he would share the glory of her capture with other mercenaries; apparently the reward on her head was large enough that he would bury his ego to admit he needed help catching her.  
  
Then she looked at Asher. Asher was tall, like her. He was big boned, thin, and muscular, wearing a worn, brown, leather trenchcoat with black and dark brown clothing underneath. The shaft of his car o' nine tails was solid chain links, the nine prongs made of leather covered by metal sections. The tips had razor blades, jagged pieces of metal, and sharpened wire attached to them. The two whips where wound over his trenchcoat, over his shoulders and under his armpits, the handles in front so they could be easily grabbed and unwound. He also had two handguns on a belt outside his waist. Asher looked to be in his 40's or 30's; he had a swarthy 2, rough, windburnt 3 complexion, and, if Ellos remembered correctly, a perpetual 5 o'clock shadow on his jaw and large, calloused hands. His face was round and flat, lined, and with the beginnings of jowls 4on his chin and jaw, thin lips and big brown, almost black eyes that made him look like a mean lizard. His hair was wiry and thin and cut short, military style. He wore an old, worn pair of goggles on his head. He hadn't changed that much in the 2 years she'd known him.  
  
And she, Asher thought, hadn't changed that much either. He was the best in his line of work; there was no one, anywhere, who could beat him, no one he needed to be scared of. He was the one who scared others, who beat others. And he had spent his entire life making sure it was that way, that he was the one on top. But Ellos made him a little... uneasy. Yeah, that was it. She was tall and slim, about 6 ft. 1in tall, with arms and legs that seemed too long for her body, and a lean, angular muscularity usually associated with long-distance runners, all which made her seem taller than she really was gave her an aura of simple elegance and style. She had long, slender, tapering fingers, and thin, elegant, delicately formed hands and feet. His first impression of her, the same as he had now, was that she moved too much like a heartless for comfort; but whereas the heartless movements where jerky, Ellos' movements had a grace that was smooth and mercurial5 which the heartless lacked.  
  
Another thing about her was that she seemed... faded. Her skin was pale; her hair was an ashy brown, like the color had been partway leeched out of it. She wore a pair of black cloth pants, figure hugging but not tight, an olive ribbed stretch tank tee that left her shoulders bare, and a black and white coat that went down to her knees with zippered pockets and a hood. It was stronger than it looked; it was made of silk over a canvas base, had several pieces of armor attached, and was lined on the inside with ceramic scales. Her hair was long, straight, unlayered, and reached easily down to her waist. She had a narrow, oval face, with delicate, defined cheekbones and jaw line, long, slightly sharp features, and a blindfold over her eyes.  
  
This blindfold was what made Asher so uneasy around her. It marked her as a Forgotten. A Forgotten was someone who had lived in Kingdom Hearts. To be a Forgotten was to live a lightless existence, devoid of color, and utterly alone. As far as he knew, It was impossible to escape Kingdom Hearts. That was part of the reason why Ellos' presence was so worrisome. It meant that the doors between the present world and that place where beginning to weaken, enough for someone like her to slip out. Another reason was because, even though blindfolded and raised in darkness, Ellos could still see. She just saw differently from normal people. Better, sharper. You could say the view was wider, in some aspects, than normal sight. And her sight was not the only sense that was improved. Every sense was changed and improved.  
  
"Let's see..." Ellos spoke, her face demure and emotionless. "There are 3 groups of people interested in me; the Nobody, people who want revenge, and people who want information from me. It's not the Nobody; they wouldn't have hired headhunters; they would have come after me themselves. Not only that, but me and them have an agreement; they don't bother me, I don't bother them. It's not someone who wants revenge; I would be dead by now; I can tell if a group of people are trying to kill me or just capture me. So it must be someone who wants information." Sighing, Ellos shifted again, trying to get comfortable in her (rapidly cooling) chains. "This ship is too small to go far. So there's only one place you can be taking me: Twilight Town."  
  
There was silence in the cockpit. Asher opened his mouth, as if to say something, thought better of it, and closed it again. Whirling around, he stomped forward and resumed piloting the ship, muttering under his breath.  
  
"Hey Lasher? How come she knows where we're going and we don't?" one of the head hunters asked. Asher turned around and roared at him to get down here and man the guns. The rest of the crew prepared for cryosleep. The ship wasn't fast, so all the crew would sleep (except the pilot and gunner) for the 2 days it was required to reach twilight town. Asher pulled up Ellos' personal file to view the reward on her head, trying to shake the feeling that, even though she was in chains and he behind the wheel, that Ellos was the one running the show.  
...  
  
_When it rains, it pours...  
_  
It was night now, it Twilight Town. Rain could be an advantage or disadvantage to someone with his kind of sight. On one hand, the sound waves made from the falling rain heightened everything with greater clarity, making every detail of the buildings around him seem etched with light. On the other hand, he could hear the fall of every single raindrop, every splash, and every ripple.  
  
It was distracting, and he needed to be focused.  
  
It had rained every night he had been here, like clockwork. This was the inevitability that was Twilight town; the day was perpetual twilight, the night pitch black, with wave upon wave to storms dumping water over the patchwork city. Now that night had fallen, visible light was gone, leaving his sight to shift into the ultra-violet range, painting the landscape in a palate visibly inclined to the cooler colors of the rainbow, such as blues, violets, ultra-violets, cyans, and other colors not visible to a person whose eyes where adjusted to only see the visible wavelengths of light. Thus, an approaching figure in a black raincoat was not hard to see. Even though it was to far up to see the details of the figure, he could guess at what he looked like; a full, round face, tapered jaw, narrow chin, messy, long blonde hair that fell into his eyes, and a tall, spare 6 figure, covered with a black rubber raincoat the zipped up the front, with a drawstring hood pulled over his face to hide his identity, and a string of metal beads attached to the front of the raincoat.  
  
The figure on the ground whipped out 2 keyblades from under his cloak; Oathkeeper and Oblivion. Attracted by the presence of the keyblades, newly called into being, darkness oozed under the puddles in the square, and heartless formed on the face of the waters, drops of rain vanishing on inimical shadowflesh 7. The Dual Wielding Unknown began systematically destroying the heartless, catching them between his twin blades and slicing them in two.  
  
Closing the gap between themselves and the Dual Wielder, a group of heartless sprinted forward, leaping in the arm, intent on slicing him into ribbon with their claws. Turning around, he crossed his blades over his chest and backflipped. The first heartless landed, missing him by inches. The Dual wielder jumped higher in the air, higher than a normal human could jump, and threw Oblivion in the air, destroying the rest in the air. When he landed, he preformed another inhuman flip in the air, landing at the base of the building. Looking up, he noticed the blindfolded man staring down at him. Grinning, the Dual wielder leaped up on the building and began running up the side.  
  
And the heartless followed.  
  
_Showoff...  
_  
Crouching, his hands on the edge of the skyscraper, Strife waited. The Dual Wielder to hit the Screen of the building. Sensing his cue, Strife bolted up, sprinted to the edge of the building,  
  
And threw himself over the edge.  
  
_Beat that, kid.  
_  
Seeing Strife approach, the Dual Wielder slowed and pulled back the one of the keyblades and threw it to him. Once he caught it, Strife dug his heels into the screen, slowing down his descent. As the two passed each other, the Dual Wielder pulled out the Kingdom Key and turned to him, asking him something, but the wind carried the sound away before Strife could hear it. Falling faster now in to the square, which had now become a broiling sea of heartless, Strife pulled out a second sword, a black one shaped like a bat wing. He realized that Dual Wielder had given him Oblivion. _Fitting... _he thought. _And ironic_.

Turning his attention to the heartless below him and the one from above closing in fast, he sliced up the heartless with a practiced ease that was almost mindless now. Dual Wielder watched Strife's fall from his position on top of the building. There was only a few feet between Strife's amazingly hard blindfolded head and the ground, now. And he calls me a showoff. Dual Wielder though. He knew exactly what Strife planned to do. While he watched, Strife flickered, and then vanished. There was no wind, no light, no sign of his passing. Dual Wielder felt a shiver go down his spine. To vanish without a trace like that was a sign of a truly powerful Nobody. Only the Enigmatic Man could vanish like that.  
  
Even though Strife did not heard Dual Wielder's question on the building, he could hear his words in his mind. The question had gotten more pressing and less likely to be answered. There where bigger things at work here than him and Ellos.  
...  
_Where's Sora?  
_ ...

_Now that's a good question.  
_  
Time had proven to Ellos that she could not, and would not, sleep. Sleep was anathema 8 to her; in Kingdom Hearts, there was no need for sleep or eating; the darkness around them kept them fed and rested. Nor was their time to relax your guard in blissful unconsciousness; Sleep was an unaffordable luxury. All her experiences spoke to the contrary to it, her instincts shunned it, the darkness akin to the power of the heartless which had come to reside in her bones didn't need it, and her whole way of life up to this point programmed her in a way that made the idea of spending a third of your day unconscious seem absurd and dangerous. Her body frozen, swimming in darkness, while the rest of the crew twitched in their cryosleep-induced dreams, Ellos sat entranced in the wasteland between sleep and wakefulness. Awake, but dreaming, aware of the world around her.  
  
Forgotten memories, thoughts, dreams, swam in a soupy, grey fog in her mind, until the question cut through the jumbled fog, burning away those unimportant thoughts with the intensity and urgency of it. It's wasn't her thought; somewhere, some Nobody had asked that same question, and it was important enough that she, being a Half Dead, was able to pick up on it. That was another thing she hated about sleep; it reminded her that she wasn't that different from those whom she hated. Strife had also been looking for a Sora when she had found him in Kingdom Hearts. She wondered who this Sora was, that he would have the Nobody on his tail. We must have done something to really piss them off.  
  
She mentally shrugged of the Nobody's thought out of her head and lost herself on the far horizon of dreams.  
...

_Shout or be lost in the shuffle.  
  
Where are you? Ellos shouted. Desperately she looked out at the broken landscape in front of her. She could hear a human voice, calling for help.  
  
Ellos looked out across the landscape; Some ages of this world where not habitable, some marginally so, some could be rendered marginally habitable, but should not be made so. Yul 9was a prime example of this kind. No other world was as hellish, as geologically schizoid, as melted, as reformed, as impossible as Yul. Yul was the underbelly of hell itself, the wart on the asshole of Kingdom Hearts. In the Present world, dawn and dusk where leisurely times, to get ready for the day or for bed, for meals, for socialization. On Yul, dawn and dusk where 1 hour windows, the only times when Yul had an atmosphere and temperature that could support human life. It was also a time of great danger to. In this age, day and night killed.  
  
Yul's sun, Ra, was an old sun. It no longer emitted visible light; nothing in Kingdom Hearts did. But Ra emitted radiation, ultraviolet, and gamma rays strong enough to irradiate anything caught in it's wake. This was how the days on Yul went- first, the sun came up, irradiating and killing any living thing on the surface, burning up the atmosphere, heating the gases so hot that they exploded. The ground melted into lava, resolidifying at twilight into a completely new landscape. As twilight approached, the superheated rocks cooled, releasing enough oxygen and various gases to create a temporary atmosphere and a sustainable temperature which lasted about an hour. After that, night approached. The temperature dropped to -200 degrees, the temperature dropping so fast the gases in the atmosphere froze solid, awaiting the dawn, when they would be heated into gases, creating the second window. Then dawn would come and the process would start all over again.  
  
Each period had it's dangers; in twilight, the land around you was still mostly lava, and unformed; there where poisonous gases, ashfall to clog lungs, lava flows, crust of land that where deceptively thin, crumbling and pitching you into lava, and a thousand other dangers. In the dawn, there where ionic disturbances, gravity wells formed when the air was burned up and new air rushed in to fill the gap, explosions, thinner atmosphere, and the ever-encroaching dawn, a malovent entity just waiting to burn you to ash like the weak, flesh sack of water you where. And there where the heartless and mindless, roving around just waiting to take your heart.  
  
No normal human could survive in such an environment. But Ellos was not normal. Her unique sight and years of living saturated in the dark powers in this place had helped her survive. She could detect the infrared heat waves that showed her where the lava flows were, both on the ground and underfoot, to avoid them. She could detect the heartless without being able to see them by feeling the dark energy that surrounded them. She could detect hollows under her or crevices disguised by ash by stamping her feet on the ground and listening to minute echoes. She could see the electromagnetic fields that signaled the start of an ion storm or the tell- tale ultraviolet, X and Gamma rays that where emitted before a gravity well formed or by the deadly dawn.  
  
But whoever was trapped out there did not have these abilities, and probably wouldn't last long without help. She looked at the landscape around her. Craters littered the surface, from where rock crashed on Yul's surface, unprotected by an atmosphere. Twisted arches, canyons, fissures emerged from the grey, semi-cool rock, steam coming of from them. Lava flowed under and on top of the rock in grey flows, squirted out of holes in the ground like geysers. Volcanos erupted, sending lava bombs and ashfall down on the terrain. Everything was gray; gray rock, gray lava, gray ash; you can't have color without light. Geysers erupted super-hot matter and plasma hundreds of feet into the atmosphere. Huge sheet of razor-sharp obsidian, volcanic glass, and other crystals bloomed from the rocks. Smaller pieces crunched underfoot and other pieces hung tenaciously to the undersides of arches, waiting to fall on the heads of the unwary. Stalagmites and stalactites hung on every available surface. Carefully picking her way around a stalagmite the size of a car and covered in razor sharp obsidian glass, she wound her way around the broken, psychotic terrain, her steed in tow, following the weak energy of a heart.  
  
Her first though of the boy she found was how_ **colorful** _he was. She had never seen colors like that before; white and black, yellow and blue, so bright they burned into her eyes. What surprised her the most was his eyes; they where this unusual color, somewhere between green and blue, that seemed as vast, deep and wide as a pool of water. Later, he would tell her that they where the same color as the oceans of his home age. He was tall, lanky and ungainly even, extremely muscular, and deeply tanned, something she had never seen before. He had black gloves, a yellow sleeveless T- shirt, and blue pants. He had a oval face, like her, but wider, and a more sculpted, triangular jaw. He had whitish blue hair, which was very spiky and fell down to his jaw.  
  
At the current moment he was in a wide, shallow depression filled with fine sand; drum sand. Every time he moved, it would shift under his feet, making a drumming sound, alerting the mindless surrounding him of his presence. Despite this and his inability to see, he was doing a good job of keeping them from attacking him; he had a sword shaped like a bat wing, and would stand perfectly still, concentrating, until one of the mindless would give away it's position with a sound and them he would charge forward and slice it in half.  
  
He was surrounded by about 10 soldier mindless. The Mindless where tall, stretched out humanoid creatures with long sharp claws that looked like they where covered in white bodysuits with lots of zippers and grayish-navy blue belts hanging from their arms. Unlike the heartless, who where black and had no mouths, the mindless where white and had no eyes. Where as the heartless' insignia was a stretched out heart with an X through it, the mindless' insignia was a fusion of a cross and a anchor, that looked like a weeping face. Soldier mindless could bite and scratch you with there teeth and claws, and the tops of their heads where large and flat so they could charge you. They where always moving, jumping, flipping in midair, rotating at impossible angles and contorting their bodies in painful shapes. Both the heartless and the mindless where mutable10, but only the mindless used their shape shifting abilities, and seemed to be slightly smarter than the heartless. But the heartless where the more aggressive and stronger of the 2 species. Also, the mindless where arranged into groups which had leaders; take out the leader and the others usually flee. The heartless did not have this weakness.  
  
The middle mindless was the leader; he was the first to attack. He readied him self for a charge. Holding his head forward so the mindless insignia could be seen, his body began to shift, becoming short, squatter, and more muscular, especially around the neck and shoulders.  
  
Blue energy, lightning, and free magic began to gather over the insignia. I drew my gun, waiting for the right moment to fire. When the top of the mindless' head glowed white, right when it was about to charge, when the free magic was so strong I could feel bile rising in the back of my throat, right when the boy realized that the mindless was going to charge and held his sword and a defensive stand, not having enough time to attack, I fired right into the middle of the white light.  
  
The mindless dissolved into a pool of white lightning. The rest scattered.  
  
The horizon was turning ultra-Red, now. The horizon would go from that color through several other colors whose wavelengths where too high to be seen by human eyes, until it turned a color known as bees' yellow. By that time, anything that values it's internal water would best be underground. I ran over to the kid. "Come on! We need to get underground. I know somewhere we'll be safe. "The boy looked around, arms outstretched, trying to find me.  
  
"Where are you? I can't see..." I reach out and took his hand.  
  
"You don't need to...I'll guide you. What's your name?"  
  
"Strife" he said. "And yours?"  
  
"Ellos. Just hold on to my hand. Where almost at the tunnel."__  
_ ... ... ...

Adalai- yeah! Its done! _does happy dance_  
  
Zena, Muse of Tragedy- now will you clean the litter box?  
  
Adalai- but if I clean the litterbox, you'll stop talking.  
  
Sora- your cats talk when you don't clean the litterbox?  
  
Zena- clean the litterbox or kiss the rosebed goodbye...  
  
Adalai- you should see what they do when I don't fill the food bowl...  
  
Review. Please review... complements and constructive criticism welcome, flames will be met with fiery death (I got a cage on Yul waiting for you flamers). If you want to criticize, at least offer suggestions on how to make it better.  
... ... ...

Author's notes  
  
1.) cat o' nine tails- a type of whip used by 17-18th century naval  
officers for flogging and roman legionaries for whipping and torture  
with 9 individual prongs onto which sharp pieces of wire, bone and  
metal where attached. Roman versions used jagged pieces of bone; 18th  
century naval versions used fishhooks (think Hellraiser). For a good  
idea of the damage these whips can do to a human body, see the  
flogging scene of _The Passion of the Christ_, which used cat o' nine  
tails.  
  
2.) swarthy- a dark, tan complexion  
  
3.) windburnt- red, irritated and tough skin due to exposure to the  
elements, especially high-velocity wind  
  
4.) jowls- rolls of loose skin under or on the jaw either due to  
sagging, flaccid skin in old age (as in Asher's case) or to fatness.  
  
5.) mercurial- swift; active; sprightly; fickle; volatile; changeable;  
crafty; liable to sudden unpredictable change; quicksilver, cool,  
willful, erratic, eloquent  
  
6.) spare- to be trim and have good muscle tone  
  
7.) inimical- adjective used to describe a substance harmful and  
injurious to life; Opposed in tendency, influence, or effects;  
antagonistic; inconsistent; incompatible; adverse; repugnant.  
Shadowflesh in my name for the substance the heartless are made of.

8.) Anathema- something that is cursed or damned, or greatly reviled, loathed, or shunned  
  
9.) Yul is Mongolian for "on a far horizon"  
  
10.) mutable- changeable  
  
_And so it came to pass that we stepped down on a place we believed unformed, where only darkness moved on the face of the waters.  
_ - Orleanna, _**The Poisonwood Bible**_


	2. Chpt 2: Quantum Entanglement

Lightbringer; Chpt. 2- Quantum Entanglement  
  
Adalai- alright Stinky, disclaimer!  
  
Stinky, muse of Comedy- Adalai does not own Kingdom Hearts, it's characters, worlds, ect. Those belong to Square and Disney. Adalai does not own free or charter magic, either. Those belong to Garth Nix. Also, I do not own the Myst or Final Fantasy worlds, their characters, or any items from those worlds. Those belong to Cyan and Square, respectively. However, Adalai ownz this fic, Asher, Ellos, Strife, Yul, Alma, Danya, Hector, Root May, Root Kay, (wow, 8 OCs already!), the plotline, any new concepts or ideas, and fills my food bowl and cleans my litter box, and that's what matters! Adalai also apologizes for blatant references to quantum mechanics.  
  
Author's notes at the bottom  
... ... ... ... ...

Research Report #2  
  
A note on Hearts...  
  
What is a heart? A Heart is a swirling, complex mass of various types of energy, the main components being light and dark energy, along with other types of energy (magic, charter, free, elemental, ect.) held in equilibrium, with various types of energies balanced against each other. (light energy vs. dark energy, free magic vs. charter magic), which is subject to constant change. The balance of various opposite energies, especially light/dark energy, varies from person to person. So, it is possible for a kind, good hearted person to have large amounts of dark energy and very little light energy, and still be in perfect balance, as well as a mean person to have lots of light energy and very little dark energy, and, again, be in balance. As is the nature of energy, energies in the heart are in a constant state of flux, in order to maintain the equilibrium which keeps these powers in balance. Our actions and thoughts can also influence this equilibrium, changing our heart, even readjusting or recreating the equilibriums and balances of these energies. But while a heart is a ball of energy, not all balls of energy are hearts. I have been able to grow hearts, but only from fragments of other hearts. Hearts have some sort of unifying principle, which can balance these opposing energies in a heart and create the equilibrium that makes it stable. Without it, the energies with in heart cancel each other out or destroy each other. Properties of hearts and how they may be reproduced in a laboratory are included in Journal 5F for future reference. An interesting property of hearts is that, when divided up into smaller shards, each shard becomes a new heart, keeping the properties present the original shard, and developing new ones, so that the new hearts contain similar properties present in the original heart, properties present in the original shard (which would be present in the original heart, but not the other new hearts), and completely new properties. All the new hearts would also be entangled. For information on Entanglement, see below.  
  
A note on Quantum Entanglement...  
  
Quantum entanglement is the theory which states that 2 or more subatomic particles (protons, electrons, ect.) which come from the same source are "entangled" or connected to each other, so that if a change in one particle's qualities (spin, speed, velocity, ect.) is observed, than the same change occurs in the other particle instantaneously, even if they are on different sides of the universe. The same thing can happen to hearts. There are only 2 differences between entanglement of hearts and particles; One, particle entanglement is extremely delicate and easily lost; entanglement between hearts, once made, is positively ironclad and so far impossible to remove. Two, 2 hearts that did not originally from the same source can also be entangled, whereas only particles from the same source have an entanglement. Could this be because of the unifying factor I have been unable to find? Do all hearts come from a single source, thus allowing any 2 heart to be entangled? Does the unifying factor have something to do with that? We believe entanglement exists between pairs of keyblades and all between all keyblades to some extent. For more information on keyblades and their making, see Ansem's Other Report.  
  
... ... ... ... ...  
  
_They say most of the brain shuts down in cryosleep. But only the human parts...  
  
Odd, that is. I'm dreaming, and then I'm falling. I crash through something and hit this liquid, not like water because it has no more heft or weight than air. I'm in a dark, enclosed place and I'm falling, falling fast. But I'm not scared. Suddenly the liquid around me thickens, cushioning my fall. I land on a black platform. Suddenly, a small light appears. I move closer to it. It's some kind of plant seed, with thousands of thin, luminous spikes attached to a glowing center, like a dandelion head. Somehow, charter magic seems to be imbued in them, making them glow, as if it where a part of the plant. More and more appear, swirling and dipping in the currents of the surrounding liquid, but they are not enough to light the darkness in this place.  
  
What is this place?  
  
This is the answer you've been looking for.  
  
This is the worlds as we meant them to be. A place so strange it must be called by another name than age. Call it what could have been instead. This is the world in its true form.  
  
Who are you? What are you trying to tell me?  
  
We are Endless. And we are not trying to tell you anything. We only seek for you to understand._  
...  
  
Almost payday, Asher thought. But he was curious. Asher did not often get curious. But then, Ellos was a curious woman.  
  
What intrigued him was her blindfold. Why did she wear it? Did her eyes look normal and human, or did they look as strange as her sight had become?  
  
Edging closer, he finally gathered the courage to take a peek. What could she do, anyway? She was in cryosleep. It was not as if she would even be aware of his presence. He reached through the bars and lifted up her blindfold.  
  
And almost had a heart attack from the shock.  
  
He was staring back into a pair of eyes, which, while they could be called human, glinted with a hint of... something else. Something not human. Something that hinted that Ellos was something more than simply a Forgotten and Half Dead. More than just human then. But not anything less.  
  
First calm and collected, Asher felt himself panic, his breath coming out in short, shallow gasps. He released the blindfold, which slipped back over it's owner's eyes. Ellos cocked her head slightly to the side, clearly awake and conscious despite the fact that she was in cryosleep.  
  
"You know, Asher, you moan in your sleep. Sexy. Makes me wonder what your dreaming about."  
  
Ellos began to move and shift around, limbs and face tingling and numb from cryosleep. "Look." Asher said, trying to forget what he had seen in Ellos' eyes. "Twilight Town."  
  
"I've seen it." Ellos replied glumly, her words slurred.  
  
However, it appeared that the rest of the crew hadn't. Several of them stood, looking out the window, mouths open, just emerging from cryosleep. Ellos didn't blame them. Even though she had seen it before, the sight of the world could still hold her in awe.  
  
Twilight Town was a hub age, but it was different from other hub ages like Traverse Town. Whereas these ages could increase in size when other ages in the system where destroyed, Twilight town went a step further; it was actually made of pieces of the ages that where destroyed. Ellos looked down at the planet's surface. Piece of worlds where connected together in a giant jigsaw puzzle and fused together by huge veins of resolidified rock. Pieces of desert where joined together with pieces of oceans in combinations impossible in their previous ages. Across the surface of the world where giant metal cities, full of skyscrapers, situated on giant curved metal plates on platforms which held the cities up to 10 miles above the ground. They where connected by thin metal railways to each other which snaked all across the planet.  
  
But the most amazing thing about that age was not on the planet, but above it. Giant husks, pieces of destroyed planets, hung suspended in the planets atmosphere. Glittering metal tubes extended upwards from the cities, connecting to the husks, allowing travel between the two. It looked as it the husks where attached to the planets surface by myriad strings of spider silk.  
...  
Home sweet home.  
...

_It's almost like having them here again...  
_  
Kairi sighed, looking at the sunset, like she, Sora, and Riku did when they where little kids, before all this happened. It gave her a sense of peace, being here, remembering the good times they had, the times of innocence, when they where still just kids. How could they have not been innocent? They where all innocent, this whole age was innocent; how could it not be? They new nothing of darkness and light, good and evil, of the true nature of the real world. All they knew was what they had; Destiny Islands. They knew boats and sand castles and swimming, not good and evil. And, like all innocent things, they sought experience, worldliness and knowledge of the greater world. Innocence always gives way experience. And they got what they wished for. Not just her and Sora and Riku, but all the people on the Island; Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, all the kids she had grown up with had gone on adventures of their own while Sora and Riku where looking for her.  
  
And when they returned to the island, they where changed. They had grown up; they knew of the true nature of the worlds, of the heartless, of the brave warriors on other worlds that endeavored to keep their world safe. They had faced evil and beat it back on the worlds that they had gone to. And when they returned to Destiny Islands they brought pieces of these worlds back with them; new ideas, new things, new weapons, new friends. Every person had a story to tell of there journey to the other worlds.  
  
Since she returned from the end of the world, things had changed on Destiny Islands. First things she did was to tell to tell Sora and Riku's families at least part of the truth of what happened to their sons. She couldn't tell them the whole truth; what would she tell Sora's mom, who had already lost her husband, and now her son? That he had been chose by an unknown force to wield a giant key to save the universe? That he was now the first on the heartless' hit list? That he was probably on a suicidal mission, or at the least a futile mission, to find his best friend and a mouse king, who where trapped in a place whose than hell, from which their was no escape?  
  
Or even worse, what would she tell Riku's parents? That he had been the true keyblade master, but had blown his chance to save the worlds by embracing darkness? That he had let himself be possessed by a mad scientist? That he had tried to kill his best friend, all because he loved her, even when she could not love him back? She owed him, in a sense though, for his kindness and protection. The same as she owed Sora, for saving her life.  
  
Sora's dad had died before he was born. He had been everything to Alma 1; now he was a shadow, a ghost. It was remarkable and torturous to her how much Sora resembled his father. All except the eyes. The eyes where hers. Alma was a motherly-looking blonde haired woman whom sometimes cried at night for her husband and seemed to contain more than the normal share of motherly paranoia for her son. Kairi had told her the smallest amount of information she could, and only the most hopeful. She said that after the destruction of this world, he had set out to search for her and Riku. He had 2 new friends, who where warriors and could protect him. After he had found her, she was sent back here and he remained to find Riku, but the world Riku was on was a large world and would take time to explore. Sora's mom had accepted this story without complaint. Thinking back on it now, Kairi though this was the same type of thing Sora would go of and do, despite the danger of being in an unknown world with no idea where the person you where searching for was.  
  
Sora's mom had accepted it, but instead of paranoia, she worried. She had become an insomniac sitting up every night and worrying about her son, far away, on distant lands, with no one to protect him but 2 people she didn't even know. In the day, half her mind seemed to be somewhere else. She had withdrawn from the rest of the world, only really spending time with Kairi. Despite their own pain, both these women supported each other, bonded together by the man they both loved. Where Alma had lost a son, she had gained an adoptive daughter in Kairi. When Kairi was 16, Alma had formally adopted Kairi as her daughter. Kairi had been living with Alma long before that, however. Kairi had never really felt at home at the mayor's house; she spent most of her time away from home. It was not from lack of love; Kairi just wanted a normal family, with a mother. Besides, the mayor's house was supposed to be a temporary home until a permanent home and adoptive parents could be found.  
  
Alma was like the mother Kairi had never had, and Kairi was the only one who could comfort Alma in her sorrow and pain, not only because of the disappearance of her son, but for the death of her husband as well. Helping each other, they where beginning to come out and rejoin their friends and acquaintances they had neglected around them while they had drawn inward to cope with their grief.  
  
It was Titus who first suggested weapons training, for both her and Alma. No longer interested in play duels on Party Island, Titus, Selphie and Wakka had their own adventure on a string of distant worlds in Twilight system called the Final Fantasy and Myst ages. They came back changed; they had new clothes, new, deadlier weapons designed to main and kill, unlike their driftwood practice weapons designed for play duels, and brought with them new friends, hardened warriors from these worlds who could teach the Islanders how to fight against the heartless. They and their friends began a training school and committee to train people to fight and ran drills on what to do in case of a heartless attack. They also held seasonal tournaments, many of which Kairi had participated in.  
  
It wasn't easy, but Kairi had enrolled and learned to fight with a sword, staff, crossbow, guns, how to fight and throw knives and throwing stars, and how to wrestle and general karate, how to fight with elemental battle magic and light magic. But her weapon of choice was a quarterstaff; light, cheap, easy to handle, learn and make, and surprisingly deadly if wielded correctly. Second to that, she preferred some kind of bladed staff or a crossbow; pikes, spears, long-handled ceremonial axes, anything with a long shaft with blades attached to one or both ends. She also carried a variety of throwing knives and stars hidden on her person, as well as a gun.  
  
The sun had already sank below the horizon. As Kairi watched, the remainder of the sunset, similar in color to her own hair, faded from the horizon as day withdrew from it's stronghold in the sky. Myriad stars twinkled in the sky, reminders that, though we may doubt or debate their existence, we are never really alone, the night sky never completely empty of ages. The connection between the hearts of worlds is always there. We share the same sky, the same destiny; the fates of worlds and men the weft and warp of the fabric of the cosmos.  
  
Riku's parents where a different matter, though. When Riku was 10, he had come to her and said that he couldn't stay at his mother's house anymore. He had stayed at the mayor's house for a few days before moving in with his dad on a different island. He had never told her why, and she had never asked; there was never a good time. And whenever she brought it up, Riku would change the subject.  
  
Riku's mother, Danya 2, was a tall, tan woman with white hair, brimming with an reckless self confidence and orange-yellow eyes a color Kairi had never seen before on a human. On heartless, yes, but not a human. If they glowed, they could be mistaken for heartless eyes. Danya had gained a reputation for sleeping around which had increased steadily after she had divorced his Riku's dad. Kairi had told her the same story she had told Alma; even though she said she believed him, she acted as if she knew that Kairi was lying; even stranger, she acted as if she had some inkling of what really happened. "Knew he'd try something like that something like that someday" she said, resigned. "I know my son. He had to find out sometime." What this could be referring to, Kairi didn't know. And she didn't want to find out; something about Danya's self confidence and unnerving quiet, easygoing manner in the face of the disappearance of her son disturbed her, even if they where estranged.  
  
Riku's father was not so disturbing. Hector Tiewaz 3 was the island's doctor; She, Sora, and Riku would go over to his house and look at his father's medical journals. Hector worked out of his home; he had a steady, warm, and friendly beside manner that came from years of practice reassuring and calming nervous children. He was as patient and steadfast as an anchor; even though Danya had an affair which was one of the reasons for their divorce, most people still assumed Riku was his son; they had the same eyes; turquoise, deep, vast, and wide, as endless as the oceans that surrounded their home. Hector had taken in Riku despite his dubious parentage; he had raised him as his own son, and there was no one else she knew that Riku really looked up to. He, too, accepted her story without question.  
  
Kairi look out over the night sky, now completely black except for where they where stars. Fewer stars, it seemed, or was that just her imagination? No way to really tell, though. Although they could not actually travel to other ages, Selphie had brought back form an age called Rune a device which could look into other worlds. Kairi had been using that device to look for Sora, but so far, there had been no luck. But she did not worry. Even though she could not be sure, something inside her could feel that Sora was alive. Like they where connected, somehow. She would know if he where in trouble.  
  
...  
  
Asher didn't hesitate. He who hesitates is a dead motherfucker, so the ancient saying goes. Especially where Ellos was concerned. The only way to survive in a hostile, deadly environment was to be as deadly and hostile as your environment.  
  
"Both you and I know I could pay a _lot_ less for such a highly wanted prisoner. Eightly-five thousand is to much for this kind of unload." Asher said, his voice taking on his characteristic biting, sadistic tone. The comlink crackled back to life again. "Normally I'd agree, but I've heard stuff about this 'Ellos' character. Heard she grew up in Kingdom Hearts. That she has special powers. Dark ones. That trouble follows her." Asher rolled his eyes. Ellos was formidable, but she was still just human. It wasn't as if she where some sort of demon.  
  
"Don't take it, Lasher" a female mercenary to Asher's left said. Unholstering her gun, a plasma riffle with a nasty sawed-off barrel and a tazer attached to the end like a bayonet, she continued, pointing the muzzle of the gun at rectangular section of the floor behind the cockpit, between the cyrosleep booths and in front of Ellos' cell, the edges marked with yellow caution tape. "the airlift works, right? We put her on the platform, drive over directly to the treasury building, lower the airlift down to the top of the building, where they wait for us to bring down the prisoner. We collect, they get their girl, everyone's happy." As she spoke, the other mercenaries collected their guns and arranged themselves in a horseshoe pattern over the airlift, facing the cell.  
  
Asher looked at Ellos. She was moving, slowly and carefully. Stretching and warming up, as if she where getting ready to run a race. Picking her head up, she spoke.  
  
"Take the money, Ash."  
  
Asher gritted his teeth. He hated being called Ash. He couldn't see Ellos' eyes, but he could tell what she was thinking; _You won't do it. you're too scared of me. You've come this far and you won't risk me getting loose at this time in the game. Hand me over to the unload team. I can get away from them much easier than I could get away from you. They won't shoot me; they need their cargo alive, and they don't know me like you do, don't know what I'm capable of._ But Asher did. He knew what to expect from Ellos. Even though he denied it to himself, he knew Ellos would escape if he handed her over to another team before he got the money, and that he would have to transport her all the way to the captor's house, if necessary. If she escaped, they didn't get paid. No, he would not be manipulated so easily; he would unload Ellos himself.  
  
Entering in the coordinates of the treasury building and putting the ship on autopilot, he picked up his own gun, a riot gun with a maulstick strapped on top over the barrel. Pointing the gun at Ellos and setting the maulstick at its highest energy setting with one hand, he pressed a button next to the hatch of Ellos' cell and dug out a pair of metal handcuffs with the other. "Come out slowly with your hands up" he barked.  
  
Slowly, Ellos clambered out of the cell. Already cliché-ly thick enough to cut with a knife, the tension became smothering as Ellos' ashy head peeked out of the opening of the cell. Asher's gun trained inches from her midsection, Ellos moved slowly, but not without grace, the way she moved out of the cell and onto the airlift more like flowing quicksilver than the normal movements of a 19-year old girl. She moved her back and forth, looking at each of the mercenaries in turn, studying their movements, noting their emotions and their level of fear, predicting how they would act if spooked or panicked; exactly like a heartless when it was looking for prey. She came to a stop in the middle of the airlift.  
  
"You know what I'm thinking?" Asher said, preparing to gloat in front of his new captor. She was ignoring him, observing the others in the room, noting their exact positions around her, the gears inside her mind squeaking. At the sound of his voice she jerked her head back around to Asher, so abruptly he almost jumped in surprise.  
  
"That if your mother knew your father you would be picking fleas off your ape bothers in Tarzan's jungle?"  
  
Suppressed giggles squeezed past the lips of a few of the mercenaries in the room. This prisoner wasn't as bad as Asher had lead them to believe. They had thought that she would try something stupid, like an escape attempt; but she had wisely done as she was told and hadn't tried anything; what could she do, after all, with 5 mercenaries with guns trained at her? No matter how good Asher though her to be, she was still human; she couldn't catch bullets. And now, it seemed, she also had a sense of humor.  
  
"No." said Asher, smiling unpleasantly. He handed her the handcuffs. They where a good, solid pair, ones he had used often when restraining unpredictable prisoners; the cuffs an inch thick, made of a metal-ceramic alloy, resistant to heat, so they could not be melted or cut off, and special links made of iron covered with rubber, so that if one link broke or was cut, the connecting chain would still stay together. No energy or magnetic connectors that could be tampered with or disrupted, either. "Turn around and cuff yourself behind the back, too, where I can see you do it." Asher growled, handing Ellos the cuffs. Turning around slowly, to avoid being poked in the back by the sharpened muzzle of Asher's riot gun and the electrically charged tip of the maulstick, Ellos cuffed herself, hands behind her back. Asher watched carefully. Cuffing yourself, even if it was in front, was difficult. Ellos moved slowly, as if to show Asher that she wasn't trying anything funny with the cuffs, but she made it look easy. Asher checked and double-checked the cuffs. They where secure; no funny business, not even a whiff of anything fishy.  
  
Now that the cuffs where securely on, Asher relaxed slightly. Seeing that the cuffs where on, the rest of the mercenaries relaxed too. Ellos could smell their fear drain out of them, to be replaced with something else; self-confidence. They moved again, forming a circle, with Asher at the head, in front of Ellos, closer and visible more relaxed. Perhaps he was getting worked up over nothing. Asher thought. Maybe Ellos would wait till she had been turned in to escape. You don't call the shots if you can't make the odds. Kill 5, still gotta get free. Kill 4 or less, get dead. But that would be after he had gotten the reward money, and by then it would no longer be his problem. Maybe she wanted to go to these people; he had gotten a distinct feeling that Ellos had let herself be captured, and earlier on, when they where in the ship, she knew exactly who wanted her and where they where going. Maybe Ellos had used the mercenaries as a free ride to her destination; after all, why drive, when you can be driven? Yes, that must be it, Asher thought. Slowly, gun still pointed at Ellos' back, he took a step backwards, towards the pilot's chair.  
  
In the short span of 2 seconds, predator and prey found their respective positions reversed. 2 thinks happened; the first impossible, the second improvable, both simultaneously.  
  
Some kind of specter, or ghost sidestepped out of Ellos, seeming made of blue mist and covered inside and out with a net of liquid lightning. It was humanoid in shape; 2 legs, 2 arms, torso, and a head. But there the resemblance to ordinary humans ended. It was burred and seemed to constantly shift and change it's features; It seemed more like a caricature of a human; distinctive features and peculiarities not present in humans where distinctly exaggerated. The torso and the face had the general form of a woman with features too perfect and beautiful to be real. It's hands where abnormally large and long; the hand and the flingers where thinner and far longer than human hands; the skin was stretched taught over long, hard bones, the knuckles and joints sharp and pronounced, ending in long, triangular, curved claws, like a raptor, with, sharp, serrated edges.  
  
The body was taller and more muscular than a normal human body, especially the limbs, which seemed slightly too long for its body. Its feet, too, where shaped similar to the hands; long and thin, but muscular, skin stretched taunt over sharp, pronounced joints that ended in raptor claws, the distinctive sickle-shaped claw even more pronounced. It had pair of leathery wings, covered with a second, tougher membrane designed to protect the thinner, flying one, and a tail the ended with three fingers, covered with armor, so when they clenched together they formed a spiked ball at the tip of the tail.  
  
The face was almost normal as well, except for 2 distinct differences. The first was the presence of a flower shaped organ on the side of the head, just above and behind the ear, the second was the mouth; it look as if someone had dislocated the jaw and made it jut outwards, filled with needle- thin, razor sharp teeth, like a reefer fish. Its eyes glowed a vivid, verdant green color, the same color as summer foliage.  
  
Distracted by the specter, Asher failed to see what happened next. Ellos was double jointed; a side effect of a genetic defect. At the same moment at the specter stepped from her side, Ellos leaped in the air, bringing her hands up, she hit Asher under the jaw hard enough to cause him to drop his gun. Back flipping and twisting sideways over Asher's head, she brought her hands completely around to her front, dislocating and relocating her shoulders and wrists. Landing neatly on her feet behind Asher, Ellos caught Asher's gun before it hit the floor. Spinning around in surprise, Asher found his the end of his gun pressed between his eyes.. One shot would cleanly remove those two important pieces of bodily anatomy, along with most of his head. _Where the hell's my crew?_ His mind reeled, frantically looking down the barrel of his own gun.  
  
While Ellos was performing her little circus stunt in direct disregard to physics and common sense, Asher's crew was busy. The specter that had stepped from Ellos' body was not for show; It leaped towards the crew, intent on carrying out the grim tasks that it had so evidently been designed to fulfill, racing at speed so fast that even the most skilled marksman would be unable to target.  
  
So imagine how well 4 two-bit head hunters would do against it.  
  
Intent on its purpose, it move towards its first target, closing the gap between them so fast the mercenary wasn't even able to fire off a shot before the specter reached into his chest and pulled out a swirling vortex of energy; his heart. The specter threw it to the ground, where it when out like a candle in a bathtub; the mercenary was dead before he hit the ground. Moving clockwise from the left, it did the same thing with the other mercenaries with grim, efficiency as terrifying in its power as it was emotionless.  
  
All perished as the first one did, save the last, the woman mercenary who had proposed the idea in the first place. Gently cradling her heart to it's chest like a mother cradles a baby, the substance it consisted of parted, revealing a chamber, in which it placed her heart for safekeeping. Then it raced back into the body of it's owner, who was now pointing her gun at Asher's head.  
  
The whole process had taken 2 seconds. In that time, the mercenaries had gotten of 2 shots at the specter. The first missed completely. The second was better, intended for the heart but which headed for the shoulder; instead for dodging it, the substance parted, forming a hole through which the shot passed through unimpeded.  
  
Ellos did not seem to notice the return of the specter to her body. Not taking her eyes off Asher or her finger from the trigger, she gently wormed free a piece of metal from a hidden pocket on the finger of her glove. It was a master key for the type of handcuffs he had used the restrain Ellos. Carefully, she began to unlock the handcuffs, while not taking her eyes (or blindfold?) off Asher. Wile she was doing this, the ghostly hands of the specter inside of her reached out from her chest and began to search Asher for hidden knives and guns, spectral arms dumping out his pockets and hidden compartments while physical legs kicked them out of reach, Ellos' eyes never leaving Asher's face and her hands never slowing down in their task, spectral body and physical body working together, joined by a mind as powerful as both bodies where strong. the spectral hands where more throughout than any human could be; they reached in though clothes and skin, searching every nook and cranny. A fact just now beginning to dawn on Asher. He was scared, because something had just dawned apon him, a terrible, looming truth.  
  
That Ellos was more than just a human. More than a forgotten, more than even Half Dead. With a start he realized that he really didn't know anything about Ellos. He should have seen it, should have known when he looked in her eyes, eyes she hid from the world for a reason. All he knew that whatever she was, it was something completely new, not completely human, whose power was impossible to fathom.  
  
And he had brought her to Twilight Town, home of over half of population of the Twilight System, the political, cultural, economic, and social center of one of the largest systems known to man. And she had planed it from the start, from the moment she had seen his team begin to pursue her, maybe even before. He had no idea why she had done this, or how this fit into her plan as a whole; but that wasn't what scared him.  
  
What scared him was that he had no idea what she was going to do next, or what she was going to do with him.  
  
...  
  
_In many ages, beauty in objects complemented function. Whether that beauty was streamlined and simple or ornate and complex, it added an extra dimension to the value and function of the object, leading to a machine as pleasing to the eye as it was efficient in its design. The inhabitants of these worlds liked things to look as efficient and beautiful as they functioned.  
  
Yul was not one of these worlds, and the tunnel Ellos and Strife where in was not built with any of these considerations in mind.  
  
The tunnels where built by a machine which bored completely circular tunnels in only 2 sizes; small and large. It chewed up the rock, compressed and melted it, and redeposited the melted lava on the surface of the rock, creating a smooth, perfectly circular, mirror-like surface which coated the entire length of the tunnel. Ellos and Strife where in one of the small tunnels. It sloped downward. A raised path of boards propped up on rocks cut through the middle of the tunnel; in tunnels this close to the surface, at certain times of the day the surfaces of the tunnel got too hot to touch, and the floor would melt you boots. Right now was one of those times. It was uncomfortably hot in the tunnel. Every couple hundred feet they came upon a mole hole, a mile long concrete tunnel that extended upwards, capped with heat resistant alloy, atop a hill made of a metal- ceramic alloy that helped prevent the hatches from being clogged with resolidified lava when the day ended.  
  
When they had reached the 5th mole hole, sunrise hit.  
  
Strife suddenly stopped, looking skyward. I heard it too; the sounds of muffled explosions created by the atmosphere exploding and the thermal front, created by the extreme difference between the night and day side, swept the half-melted surface of the age clean. All around us, the tunnel walls shook.  
  
We waited, until the sounds from above faded into merciful oblivion. "What was that?" I heard him say behind me.  
  
"Sunrise."  
... _

_Eventually, we reached one of the big tunnels. Besides being bigger and level, they differed very little from their smaller brethren except in one aspect; instead of wooden catwalks, this tunnel had a rail and a cargo sled.  
  
The cargo sled was built with one and only one purpose in mind; to get to point B from point A while breaking down as little as possible. The sled consisted of 2 slabs of riveted steel, connected together with a heavy chain, one behind the other, with 8 wheels; 4 to each slab. The propulsion system was simple; shaped like a seesaw, it had a vertical base shaped like a thin triangle with a lever in the middle; one side had a handle, the other had a wheel on the end, with a belt on it, which was wrapped around the axel of the first set of wheels. Each end had a circular rubber bumper attached to a metal pole inside a spring. There where no brakes.  
  
After guiding Strife onto the back sled, Ellos went onto the front sled and began to pump the handle up and down. Pumping the end of the lever would cause the axel to rotate, and thus the wheels, propelling the cart forward. It was an awkward, uncomfortable, and for Strife, dark journey, except for the whoosh of air and uncomfortable silence as they speed forward to an unknown destination.  
  
Finally, the rubber bumpers collided with the stone wall of the tunnel, ending their journey. Stepping off the front sled, Ellos helped Strife off the back and pressed a button, sending the sled back up the tunnel.  
  
As Strife rounded the bend of the tunnel, he at last found himself at Ellos' home.  
  
Nature had formed the base of the Shelter long before humans first stepped on the broken lands of Yul. It came in the form of a volcano, one of many that dotted the surface of Yul. But time marches on, and the magma source moved elsewhere, leaving a huge, empty lava chamber safely tucked miles underground, away from Yul's sun. Water collected in the bottom, attracting to it what few humans where fortunate to find it, eventually settling down in it. What had once killed now provided salvation. The last shall be first.  
  
That water source had dried up, but not before the humans had found other ways of providing water. After hundreds of years, multiple levels of storerooms, tunnels, access-ways, and rooms had been carved into the rock. Bridges made of rope and wood spanned across the cavern. On top of the cavern, a metal tower, set on screws, designed to rise out of the top of the volcanic throat. On the sides of the cavern, various small weeds and desert plants grew using hydroponics 4out of white pipes, obviously to supplement the surrounding air with oxygen.  
  
On the bottom was a machine unlike any he had ever seen; It looked like an octopus toy that a kid had thrown across the floor. Entirely composed of some kind of multi-hued mirror-like metal, it filled the entire floor with rainbow tentacles and small protrusions with clear bubbles on the top, in the center of which floated some kind of glowing substance, filling the cavern with dim light. At the center of the tentacles was a large glass dome in which rested..._ a **heart**_?  
  
Before Strife could ask about it, Ellos pulled him along, down into the depths of the cavern. As they descended, people poked their heads out of the nooks and crannies as they passed, all blindfolded and as grey as the rocks around them. By the time they reached the bottom of the cavern, they had a small crowd following them; children darting between the legs of their elders, muscular, scarred, battleworn men, cautious women balancing baskets of slag on top their heads, old people hauling themselves on crutches.  
  
Suddenly, Ellos stopped. They where on a platform above the octopus-shaped machine. From here, Strife could get a much clearer view of it. It was not lying on the floor of the cavern, as he had previously thought, but rather extended downward father into the cavern. It seemed to be arranged in layers; the largest pipes, big enough for a human to fit through, where at the top, crisscrossing into a network of interconnected pipes and peppered with valves. These pipes where connected by protrusions he had seen earlier; each pipe that was connected to it had a valve to regulate it's flow into the bubble on top. Under these larger pipes where a series of slightly smaller pipes, with different valves and different types of protrusions; the two layers where connected by thin, pencil wide clear pipes. Each successive layer was connected to the other in this way, each successive layer getting smaller and each with different valves and protrusions, until the last layer consisted of pipes as thin as a man's arm. From these pipes, chemical dripped or where piped into vats.  
  
Moving closer to one of the protrusions, Strife looked at the glowing substance within the sphere. It was, he realized with a start, a gummi block._ **Are they synthesizing gummi blocks?**_ Strife thought._ **And chemicals too? If so, what did the heart in the center have to do it?**  
  
_Suddenly, 2 people came from the back of the crowd. Whereas before Ellos had ignored the growing crowd, when these two stepped forward, Ellos turned around, facing them.  
  
These two where clearly the leaders of the community. They where two women, twins, in their 40's or 50's. They where callous and battle-scared; both of them had hair grey from age. Unlike the others, in grey homemade clothes, they whore matching faded grey jeans and faded grey T-shirts. He was starting to realize that everything here was grey or would turn grey, eventually. One T-shirt said, in almost faded grey letters "_**Obey me, I am Root.**_" The other said "_**The Root's Word is Law**_." In UNIX operating system, Root meant boss. They must have been outsiders who had stumbled into Kingdom Hearts, who had worked in fields heavily influenced by computers and computer programming.  
  
Ellos looked over at the Roots, waiting for them to pass their judgment on the situation. They looked Strife over, sizing him up, seeing how long he would last. Nodding to each other, Root May, with the V-shaped scar on her face and the "_**Obey me, I am Root**_" T-shirt, stepped forward and spoke.  
  
"There're are 2 kinds of people on Yul; Forgotten and Lost; weeds and trees. The Forgotten are like weeds; they know the rules, have the moves, work the system, make the system. They understand, they survive, they thrive, they control. They are forgotten to the present world, have forgotten it." Root May said, glancing at Ellos. The other twin, Root Kay, stepped forward and continued Root May's speech. "The Lost are like trees; they are lost here, they never really adapt to Yul, never make it their home. They don't play by the rules, barely survive, Do Ra's job for it. Their lost to the present world, but refuse to see it, refuse to let go. Which are you?" Silent, the crowd looked at Strife, waiting for an answer. They didn't have to wait long. Strife looked the Roots in the eye, and said:  
  
"I don't know. And I don't plan on sticking around to find out."  
  
_ ...  
  
Adalai- wootage, it's don-one does happy dance again longer this time. I hope this isn't a trend, like the Harry Potter books. Each successive book is longer than the first... soon it will be so big they'll have to use trolleys to unload them into the book store. Sora, help me with this mirror, and Stinky, stop drinking out of the toilet, you're a cat, not a dog...  
  
Adalai and Sora bring in magic mirror from Sherk.  
  
Adalai- Ok. Now, Sora, I will attempt to read your mind...

...

...

hmm... nothings showing up... Maybe it's not working... taps mirror with finger  
  
Sora- how do you know I'm just not thinking of anything?  
  
Adalai- O.Otwitch- okay, then THINK OF SOMETHING!!!  
  
Sora- Gah! runs and hides with Stinky under the endtable  
  
Adalai- sigh okay, until I can lure Stinky WHO I CAN STILL SEE BECAUSE HIS TAIL IS HANGING OUT FROM UNDER THE FRINGE and Sora from the endtable with stale cookies so I can get this thing working, you will all have to review because I can't see into your mind. No flames, but constructive criticism is welcome.

Also, about Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka; I always imagined that each of the characters on Destiny Islands went off and had their own little adventure during Kingdom Hearts. Maybe I'll write a fanfic on that one day.   
  
Author notes

1.) Alma means soul, nourishing. A good name for a gentle, overprotective type.  
  
2.) Danya is a derivative of the female form of Daniel, which means "God is my judge." Danya's character flaw is that she doesn't think about the effect her actions have on others and believes she is only responsible to herself. This is one of the reasons why Riku drew away from her.  
  
3.) Hector means anchor. Hector Tiewaz had a very strong, silent personality type and sort of served as an "anchor" in Riku's otherwise chaotic life. I read somewhere the Tiewaz was Riku's last name in the game. On an interesting side note, Tiewaz is the name of a Celtic rune, which stands for honor, justice, leadership, authority, analysis, rationality, strength, heroism, duty, responsibility, knowing where one's true strengths lie, a wound, willingness to self-sacrifice, and victory and success in any competition. Associated with Tyr, the god of war, the conflict between Tyr and the Fernis wolf, and with the path of the warrior. Also strongly connected with love, but I'm not sure on that. Sounds very much like Riku.  
  
4.) Hydroponics is growing plants without the use of soil. Water and nutrients are delivered direct to the plant's roots.  
  
...  
  
_A toad can die of light! Death is the common right of toads and men. Why swagger, then?_

Emily Dickenson


	3. Chpt 3: Prey

Lightbringer; Chpt. 3- Prey  
  
Adalai- Alright Dante, Disclaimer!  
  
Dante, Muse of Drama- Adalai does not own Kingdom Hearts, it's characters, worlds, ect. Those belong to Square and Disney. Adalai does not own the flame in the void trick either; that belongs to whomever owns the Wheel of Time series. However, Adalai ownz this fic, Asher, Ellos, Strife, Yul, Alma, Danya, Hector, Root May, Root Kay, The End, the plotline, any new concepts or ideas, and fills my food bowl and cleans my litter box, and that's what matters!  
  
Authors notes at bottom  
... ... ... ... ...

_Ansem's Other Report  
  
Do Keyblades have hearts? They certainly seem to. A weapon that can choose who it will go to instead of its intended wielder seems like a weapon with a heart. But since all the different keyblades have different powers and abilities, these differences must exist in the hearts of the keyblades. Different hearts must make different keyblades.  
  
I have manufactured Keyblades from hearts of both humans and heartless. All the powers present in the heart are the also present in the keyblade, as well as new ones. The material used also affects the Keyblades powers. But all keyblades do have similar abilities; power to unlock doors, locks, and hearts, to varying degrees. For a full report, see Lab Journal L2.  
  
The ability to unlock hearts is of particular interest to me. It can unlock the heart to light, or darkness, or both, causing the two to balance each other out. Also it can unlock abilities and memories in the heart that have been long forgotten.  
  
But none of these keyblades are able to open the door of Kingdom Hearts. The hearts are not strong enough, or of the right type. I believe that the original keyblades where made from the hearts of the same race that built the door of Kingdom Hearts. Perhaps the remnants of this race exist somewhere, waiting to be found... even if Maleficent that they are all dead.  
  
Also, it appears that it is also possible to create a set of "modifications" to a keyblade in terms of abilities and form, called a "keychain". When the keychain is attached to the end of the keyblade, the modifications present in the keychain, combined with the abilities and form of the keyblade, combine to create a completely new keyblade. After the keychain is removed from the original keyblade, the new keyblade can be summoned direct from the keychain, without the original keyblade. Even the original keyblades themselves have keychains that the original keyblades can be summoned from.  
  
But now I am working on trying to create keyblades made from multiple hearts and which have the properties of machines, magic items, ect. I have been able to create a keyblade that unlocks darkness in people's hearts. All subjects, when struck, their hearts shatter into many fragments, each becoming a heartless.  
  
A keyblade that unlocks darkness in hearts... I shall call it the Dark Keyblade.  
_ ...

_Yuck_.  
  
Finishing of the last of the fiber rope, Ellos began to rummage through the cockpit, looking for something to wash the last vestiges of the fiber rope's taste out of her mouth.  
  
Fiber ropes consisted of starch, carbs, water, and fiber, made from processed potatoes. And Ellos hated potatoes. But she needed the sugar. Manifesting an astral body outside of your own took a lot of energy. Although relaxed and energetic on the outside, inside she was dead tired. That was another thing you had to do in the present world that you didn't have to do in kingdom hearts. Before, on Yul, for some reason, their was no need for anyone to eat. Which was just as well; if they had to grow their own food, they probably would have starved.  
  
Finally, Ellos found one of the dead soldier's hip flasks, filed with a clear, colorless liquid. _Probably vodka_. Ellos unscrewed the cap and took a sip. The fiery chemical taste of vodka was not much better than potatoes, but it got the taste out of her mouth.  
  
Ellos turned around, looking at the ship. _My ship, If I do this correctly_. It was low-slung, small, handsome, fitted with a mirror-like stainless steel-esque metal over a gummi-block frame made in an age noted for it skill, functionality, and aesthetic machines. Adaptable, tough and versatile, it could travel in a wide range of atmospheres, as well as intra- space. It could also burrow, swim, have cloaking abilities, and camouflage. It also had a large amount of useful little extras installed by the mercenary team; souped-up defense system, decoys, shields, and a few other odds and ends. It consisted of 2 rooms; the one she was in now, with the cockpit, airlift, hibernation booths, and cell. On either side of the cell were doors which lead into a room which served as storage, living quarters, and kitchen.  
  
But what Ellos liked was the simple, streamlined style of the rooms. The cockpit room's ceiling and side walls was a plasma screen display which projected the space immediately outside on itself, with the help of nanocameras which crawled over the ships hull, creating a seamless illusion that the cockpit was open, with nothing between the driver and intra-space. The rest of the cockpit was tastefully furnished in black and grey leather, sterling silver, and a rich, dark, polished wood, in sumptuous curves, with very few straight lines. The floors where some kind of glossy black tiles which pulsed with dark, rosy light, changing color and luminosity according to environmental presets. The console was made up primarily black glass planes, inside frames of polished wood, leather, and touches of silver. As she moved toward them, red interactive holograms flared into life.  
  
_Nice. Very Nice_.  
  
Sitting down in the pilots chair, the city of Twilight town moving below them, Ellos began typing on a holographic console panel. Under her fingers, the holograph shifted and reformed, becoming a keyboard. She opened up her own file. A 3-D screen appeared, a holograph wrapped in a loose, slowly rotating cylinder around her head, visible only to her. Under her fingers, the keyboard shifted again, forming a mouse pad and mouse. Using the mouse, Ellos scrolled down, reading her bio.  
  
Last know name- Ellos

Age- 19

Hair- Ash Brown

Eyes- ???

Height- 6' 1"  
  
Not very big, not a lot of info. Good.  
  
Under that was a listing called "Leads"  
  
Reported seen on Twilight MXIV, Reported seen on Disney Kingdoms/Traverse XXXXVIIII, Reported seen on Traverse/Twilight XVII ...Hollow Baston..., Reported seen on..., Reported seen on... etc., ect. Quite a lot of those last ones. True, she could move between the worlds without a gummi ship, but in order for her to be in all those places, there would have to be a hundred of her.  
  
Under that was another listing called "Crimes"  
  
Wanted for murder of Mercenary Henry Eacher, wanted for murder of... ect., ect, Ellos read, scrolling down. Wanted for impersonating a member of the Royal police force, wanted for impersonating a member of the British royal family, wanted for questioning in emergency re-entry and crash of gummi vessel M9dla7, Wanted for questioning in the murder of... yadda, yadda, yadda. Wanted for questioning in connection to Ansem, whoever that was. Wanted for questioning in connection to the Nobody, wanted in connection to the Disappearance of Riku Tiewaz, whoever that was, too, and...  
  
Ellos froze. "Wanted for questioning into the disappearance of Sora Merrick 1" Wasn't that the name of Strife's friend that he told me he was trying to find? The sentence was hyperlinked. She clicked on the link.  
  
The computer scrolled down to a listing called "Offers". It consisted of 3 columns, the first listing private parties, governments, and prisons, in chronological order, the second listing where the prisoner would be dropped off, and the third listing the prices they would pay for Ellos' incarceration. This list was, if it was possible, longer that the list of worlds she had reportedly been sighted on. A variety of groups and individuals wanted her dead or locked up for various reasons. For some, it was simple revenge. For others it was for information; Ellos had been a scientist of sorts in Kingdom Hearts, and carried a lot of important information with her that people would kill for. Rewards ranged from 3,000- 75,000 in price. Finally, the computer stopped on the last, most recent addition to the list.  
  
Ellos blinked. 1.5 million. A glaring exception to the rest of list that made Ellos take notice. Munny or a specific currency of choice, hard cash. Opening the offer's complementary folder, another holographic window opened in front and to the side of the previous one.  
  
Offer- 1.5 million

Age- Twilight Town

Group- Private Party

Currency- ???

Cash or credit- Cash

Source of money- Twilight International Department of Treasury  
  
Ellos sat back, thinking. The reward that was posted was by an individual or small group of individuals, but the reward was being paid with government bills; the source of the money was the same as the drop-off location. The party was probably a high ranking politician. This thing stunk of political intrigue.  
  
"Hmm..." Ellos murmured to the screen. It did not respond; neither did the room's other 2 residents. The lack of response did not trouble her; It was her business, after all, not theirs. Just as well. Ellos was tired, and not really the talkative person, even when she was in a good mood.  
  
An idea, nebulous and vague and first, began to emerge in the back of her head. Closing the holograms, Ellos pulled up Asher's file, scrolling down to the section labeled "Offers". If all went as planned, the bounty would be removed from her head, and she would walk away a very rich woman.  
...

_Rat Poison...Rat Poison...Rat Poisoonnnn... Ahah!_  
  
Pulling a container out of a compartment, Ellos looked at the side of the container. _50 pellets, 16 grams, 7% Arsenic_, Ellos read. _Divide 16 by 50, multiply by .07. Which meant .0224 grams arsenic a pellet, and the woman was 120 pounds, based on height..._  
  
Ellos calculated out the amount of arsenic she would need; 4 pellets, not enough to kill, but enough to produce the desired effect.  
  
Curious, Asher leaned forward in his cell. _What was she doing?_ As he watched, Ellos ground up the rat poison pellets, dissolved the dust in a saline solution, and loaded a syringe with the solution, and carefully injected it into the form of the woman mercenary, who Ellos had placed in one of the cryosleep booths for safekeeping. Taking off her own blindfold, Asher once again got a look at Ellos' unearthly eyes. It made him shiver. Carefully, Ellos tied the blindfold around the mercenary's eyes, cocking her head from side to side, observing how she looked. _Seeing if she can pass her off as herself_, he realized. The female mercenary and Ellos had about the same height, the same general body structure, the same hair color. To the casual observer, they would be able to pass as each other. The only thing different about them was the eyes and skin; the mercenaries eyes would be covered by a blindfold, and one of the side effects of arsenic poisoning was that it turned the skin very pale, almost white. Like Ellos' skin. Within an hour, the Mercenary's skin would turn from golden brown to a pale white.  
  
Satisfied with how she looked, Ellos got up and slipped on a pair of what looked to be sunglasses, but on a second look, turned out to be some kind of hybrid between sunglasses and goggles. They where unlike any pair he had seen; the design was completely alien to him, and their composition hinted that they where designed to do more than simply dampen light. Straightening up and checking to see if the woman's body was deep in cryosleep, a spectral arm reached out of her side, reached back into her chest, and withdrew the mercenary's heart. It then carefully placed it back inside her. Removing her jacket, Ellos began to lift up her shirt, but then stopped, seeing Asher looking at her.  
  
Suddenly, Ellos grinned at Asher. A real grin of amusement, not sadistic or sarcastic; just the grin of an ordinary girl who just found something funny. Pulling down her shirt, Ellos, grabbed her jacket from the floor, and placed it over the bars of the cell, obscuring Asher's view of the cockpit. "No peep show for you, Ash." Ellos said, amusement creeping into her voice.  
...

Finally finished, Ellos pulled off her jacket from the hatch in front of the cell and placed it on the female mercenary. Asher blinked; she looked exactly like Ellos; she was wearing Ellos' clothes and blindfold, and the arsenic had made her pale and thin. Ellos was also wearing the mercenary's clothes, looking exactly like her except the glasses and pale skin. Grinning, Ellos picked Asher's gun with one hand and brought out a different pair of handcuffs with the other. The mercenary acted as if in a trance; confused and drowsy, she let herself be guided into the center of the airlift by Ellos, and cuffed, hands behind her back. Picking up the identification paperwork, which Asher had worked out soon after they had captured Ellos, and placing it in her backpack, Ellos grabbed another pair of handcuffs and pushed the release button for the cell. Pointing the gun at Asher, she motioned him to come out.  
  
"What the hell are you doing?" Asher asked, emerging from the cell. Even though he sounded angry, inside he was scared. Was she going 'dispose' of him? Toss him out the airlift? Ellos handed him the cuffs. Starting to become slightly irate, she jingled them to catch his attention "Well what are you waiting for? Are you dense?" Suddenly he realized what she wanted him to do. Taking the cuffs, he turned around and handcuffed himself behind the back. Guiding Asher back next to the female mercenary, Ellos drew out a remote control and pressed a button, causing the airlift to descend.  
  
The gummi ship hovered a mile above the treasury department, a large black skyscraper which stood out against the skyline of Twilight town. Slowly, the sheet of metal detached from the bottom of the ship, lowering down onto the surface.  
  
Mouth agape, Asher looked around at Center City, Capitol of Twilight Town. It was truly an awesome sight to behold. Twilight Town's pride and joy was it's multicultural harmony; many different races and cultures are lived together in peaceful cooperation. The city's skyline was a testament to this fact. Neon-lighted skyscrapers rubbed shoulders with levitating ivory domes, energy tentacles hanging down from the bottom of the dome, and strange, geometrically-shaped structures covered with flowing liquid metal. Colorful trains chugged along on tracks on the ground and in the air, running not only between far-flung cities on the other side of the planet, but also between other worlds as well. Thin, incredibly ornate and detailed spires stuck straight up from the ground high into the air, each with it's own little light, flashing different colors and pulsing. Famous in the Twilight System, they where a symbol of all that was Twilight Town. They had many purposes, but for now, at least, they where primarily being used to light up the city against the coming night, A spectacular sunset could be seen off to the west, hence the age's name; in the day, the city was stuck in perpetual twilight, until night. When night came, it always rained.  
  
"You know, Asher, I'm not the only one with a big bounty on my head." Ellos said, eyes still on her two prisoners. "Wanted for the murder of Audrey Ann Huber, 24. Whipped to death. The sentence has already been decided on; life in a maximum security prison. They keep a cell open for you, you know." Asher blinked, not quite understanding what Ellos was saying. But when he stepped off the landing onto the building, he did. 2 groups of people were on the roof; one was a group of clerks and a group of guards, carrying a large suitcase; Ellos' reward money. But a smaller group was also there; a father and a daughter, with a lawyer, police, and a prison escort, also carrying a smaller suitcase full of money. Not only would Ellos collect the bounty on her own head, but she would also collect the bounty on his head, and he would spent the rest of his life in prison, convicted for the murder of the prisoner he had whipped to death all those years ago.  
...

_His voice...It's left me...  
_  
Kairi gasped, falling to the ground. Something seemed to have ripped inside her, imaginary claws tearing, tugging at her heart. Wincing in pain, She looked at the sky. A lone meteor streaked through the sky. Hand over her heart, she ran to the beach, hand still over her heart, and looked up at the sky.  
  
_Please let it be a lone meteor_. Kairi thought, looking at the sky. Not an implication of something more sinister. Tensed, she watched, as the meteor traveled across the sky, and vanished over the horizon. Kairi breathed a sigh of relief, unaware that she had been holding her breath. Turning and tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ears, she looked out over Destiny Islands.  
  
From her vantage point, she could see the two southernmost islands; Village Island and Party Island. Village Island was the island she was now on, which consisted of a dirt road and about 20 houses that the islanders lived in, a general store, school, Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka's training school, and the mayor's house. Beyond that lay Party Island, the island they had played on when they where kids, the sun sinking low behind it. Their was nothing in the sky save the clouds and the sunset; she had probably just seen a comet.  
  
Turning around, Kairi headed down the path and went back home. Just as she was about to step inside, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. A streak of white? Was it her imagination playing tricks on her? She turned around.  
  
And the sky began to fall. A meteor shower filled the air, falling down on the serene islands. Kairi felt herself begin to panic, her legs wobbling and her body shaking. No, not again...  
  
Kairi braced herself against the doorframe. Since she had returned from the End of the World, she had found herself becoming prone to panic attacks, freezing when confronted with something she felt she couldn't cope with, like the heartless. Breath coming in short, shallow gasps, she slowly recited something to herself over and over; _It's okay...It's okay...It's okay_... Memories rushed back from her previous encounters with the heartless; the pain of having her heart ripped from your chest by heartless, of watching one of her best friends fall into evil trying to save you, and the other giving up his life so she could be free.  
  
She used a trick she had learned from one of the new inhabitants of Destiny Islands; the flame and the void. Imagining a flame in her mind, she fed all her panic and thoughts into it, until their was nothing but an empty void in her mind, free of fear and ready to fight. It was supposed to be used to help you concentrate in a fight, but Kairi found it worked equally well with panic attack.  
  
Calm again, Kairi went inside to grab her crossbow and quarterstaff. Sirens where blaring outside, calling all the warriors available to head over to the hill overlooking the town.  
  
This time, she wouldn't let fear control her life. She wouldn't stand by, paralyzed by fear, while everything she loved crumbled and turned to dust.

_This time, I'll fight. _  
...

Because of the teleportation abilities of the heartless, ordinary defenses would not work on them. They would just teleport behind the ranks of defenders, straight into where the helpless inhabitants where lurking, devouring their hearts and then, when they where strong enough, attack the defenders. So the plan in case of heartless attack was this; get all the people out of their homes and on the water, in boats; the last time the heartless attacked, none of them had come into or from the water. The warriors would stay behind and try to defend their homes. That way, even if the town and two island where taken, they might still have some chance of surviving.  
  
Turning around, Tidus saw a girl with shoulder-length red hair, short and thin, with a round face and petite, well sculpted features, wearing a schoolgirl-esque uniform; plaid pleated skirt, sleeveless blouse, white, tight-fitting long-sleeved shirt under it, carrying a hollow steel quarterstaff and a crossbow strapped to her back. "Kairi!"  
  
"What?" Kairi replied, looking upward and seeing him.  
  
"Get that ass up here! NOW!" Tidus yelled from on top of the hill, in the middle of a group of 20 to 30 warriors, all staring at something up beyond the hill.  
  
It was enough. Kairi knew that Tidus didn't curse unless he was really angry. Or really scared. Kairi sprinted the rest of the way up the hill, moving to stand beside a man named Auron, who had already removed his guns and was loading them. Looking at what she saw, she understood why Tidus had cursed.  
  
She was prepared for heartless; little shadow heartless, Nocturnes, Wizards, Operas, Neo Heartless, Darksides, ect.; all the heartless she had seen 4 years ago. After all, how much could the heartless change in just 4 years?  
  
But nothing she had seen from the heartless could have prepared her for this.  
...

Hundreds of worlds apart, another person felt the same icy claws ripping at their own chest, the same ripping feeling deep inside their own heart. This person showed no sign of the pain that was now ripping at his heart; he had been trained to handle pain. The only sign he gave was one hand on his chest, held over his heart. Speeding up, he walked unnoticed through the neat, clean streets and sidewalks of Center City, heading for the bus station. Citizens of Twilight Town went about their business, not noticing but noticed, with the air of people who considered themselves slightly superior. Humans of every variation in hue, culture, dress, class, stature, and sensibility walked through the busy but not crowded streets, accompanied by alien races, dragons, monsters, fairies, animals, and other creatures too strange to describe here.  
  
Dressed in black and white clothing, with a full, round face, tapered jaw, narrow chin, messy, long blonde hair that fell into his sapphire blue eyes, and a tall, spare figure, he made his way through the crowd. Aloof, eyes down, hands in his pocket, to the casual observer, he seemed to notice no one, but in reality he took note of every passing individual, missing nobody. Just not with his physical eyes. He needed to find the woman now, before it was too late. The pain in his chest was already a sign that the link was beginning to weaken, and he needed to woman to find Sora before that happened.  
  
Sensing another presence, he looked upward. Clinging there on the side of the building, a soldier mindless clung to the ornate framework like a spider to a web, weeping face insignia and maniacal smile pointed at straight at him.  
  
Readying himself, the figure projected his psyche body just barely inside his own physical one, an leaped into the air, landing on the side of the building. If someone had looked closely at the figure, they would have seen small, barely noticeable, thin lines of lightning, hugging close to his body and jumping back and forth across his skin and clothes. When his feet neared the side of the building, those tiny lightning bolts jumped from his feet to the building's side, gluing his legs to the surface.  
  
Running across the surface of the building, he raced after his quarry. The mindless stretched out impossibly long and wide, cartwheeling and spinning between buildings. Suddenly, the creature disappeared into the side of the building. The Dual wielder stopped, standing still on a vertical wall, as if his feet where attached to the building by suction cups. Even though mindless could walk through walls, the portal it had passed through had been opened by a Nobody. Odd. But that was impossible; no Nobody would help a Mindless; in fact, the Nobody where sworn to the destruction of the mindless.  
  
Crouching down, the dual wielder examined the plane of glass where the mindless disappeared. There where coils upon coils here, and it would take time to undo the knots. Standing up again, he leaped from building to building, headed not for the train station this time, but for the Bell Tower.  
...

_There was no showers, no tubs, no pools of water to wash off dirt and infectious bacteria in the Shelter. What little water the shelter had was exclusively reserved for 3 purposes; washing yourself, washing your room, and washing your wounds. There was no need for food and water in Kingdom Hearts; people just didn't get hungry or thirsty. They didn't get tired, either.  
  
That was the hardest part about life on Yul; no sleeping. It felt weird to stay up all day and night and not go to bed; it messed up your internal clock.  
  
Sitting on a rock ledge near the bottom of the Shelter, Strife looked down at the octopus machine at the bottom. Emerging from the stairs onto the platform above the machine, Wash emerged, balancing a 20-gallon demijohn on top of her head, full of water.  
  
This was how you washed on Yul. When Wash was in her 20's, a lava flow burned her legs clear off of her body. To support herself and her children, Wash would, before dawn and dusk, grab a large, empty demijohn, head down to the bottom of the Shelter. Scooting on the palms of her hands, she would navigate among the maze of catwalks and stairs that twisted in and out of the pipes of the machine, finally getting to the very bottom of the machine. There, water synthesized in the arms dripped down into pools on the cavern floor. Minerals dissolved into the water, actually making for a healthier soak and eliminating the need for soap. Filling her demijohn, Wash would make her way back up to the platform above the machine, dump the water from the demijohn into a cauldron, light a fire under it to keep it warm, and barter cups of wash water in return for slag from the surface and service. She also sold lye soap, made from ashfall by her children, who collected it from the mouth of the moleholes.  
  
People like Wash where not unusual; in fact, they where the norm. Almost everyone here seemed to have something missing; an arm, a leg, a finger or toe; that was the price of survival on Yul. When Wash scooted by on her hands, nobody batted an eyelash. If they didn't have a hand, people would just wave a stump at you, in a friendly way. There was no such thing as disability pay on Yul; If you lost something, find a way to survive without it. It was also not unusual to have very young children earning their keep, like Wash's children, too. Most children here where orphans, anyway. Like Ellos. The only exceptions to this rule (other than very young children) where the Roots, Ellos, and him.  
  
Strife rubbed the rough cloth blindfold over his eyes. After his brief respite from darkness in the Shelter, Ellos had come up to him and tied it around his eyes, saying that if he didn't wear it, he would never get his second sight. His sight had so far not improved or changed, but his other senses had, especially his hearing. He could hear every tiny sound around him, and from echoes bouncing off surfaces, he could actually create a rough image of the area surrounding him, like echolocation in bats. While worse than normal vision, but he could tell the texture of items and how far apart things where with greater accuracy than with normal sight by their echoes. Also, he found that, as a side effect of his new hearing; when he heard sounds, it triggered colors in his brain. Litterly, he heard in color. It was a neural condition called synaesthesia 2. He read about it in one of his father's books; hearing in color was the most common form, but there where other forms too; tasting shapes, smelling in color, hearing sounds when you see colors.  
  
Climbing down, he sat down on the surface of the platform, near where Wash was pouring water into her kettle. The cavern began to rock and shake with the sounds of muffled explosions, thousands of shades of yellow inside his brain; dawn, like clockwork, had again come to Yul.  
  
Covered in a grey mud made from a mixture of ash and her own sweat, Ellos was the first one back from the surface. Setting down a huge basket filled with slag and various odds and ends collected from the surface, Ellos traded some things she had collected with Wash for a bucket of water, and sat down next to Strife. Her expression unreadable, thoughts concealed, she took out something edged, reflective, and pointed, and waited for the rest of the inhabitants to come down, sharpening it against a stone.  
  
"Still here, are you?"  
  
Outwardly neutral and inviting, Root May came up to Strife. If not for the blindfold, her eyes would probably be twinkling. Strife listened politely, but didn't let down his guard. Root May's mood could just as easily turn sour. The last time he'd let down his guard he had gotten knifed in the arm. He was still favoring that side. As Ellos had told him when she bandaged his arm; there are rules you have to find out for yourself to survive in this place, and if you don't learn them, Yul won't kill you; it's inhabitants will.  
  
Unexpectedly, Root May held up her left hand. It looked as if it had been run over by the sled in the big tunnel. Many, many times. But they were all there, speaking volumes about their owner's ability to take care of herself even here, at the underside of hell. What had originally been a wedding ring glittered in her skin; it had long ago melted into her palm, and the skin had grown partially around it. The original diamond and setting was in the middle, sticking out of the skin. It was nearly as scarred and roasted as the flesh that encircled it.  
  
"He was damn handsome. Don't remember his name, though. Yul has that effect on you; no time for anything but the present."  
  
Root May, like most people here, had the ability to impress a lot of meaning into very few words, summing up an entire personal history into 3 sentences, which she chose not to expound upon. Picking up a metal bowl, she filled it with water from Wash's cauldron. She held it out to Strife. "Have one on me. Soaking away dirt's pretty much the only real pleasure around here, seeing as your going to be here the rest of your unnatural life."  
  
Strife made no move to take the bowl. "What, you don't like my water?" Wash asked.  
  
Instantly, the atmosphere turned from friendly to hostile. The other inhabitants of the cavern began to gather around them, muttering angrily under their breath picking up rocks and weapons, surrounding Strife. Root May and Wash eyed him hostilely. Ellos stopped sharpening her weapon.  
  
One could go solo, as Ellos did, but refusing hospitality was crossing the line.  
  
"Maybe he knows nothings free on Yul."  
  
The crowd glanced at the speaker. Ellos had resumed sharpening.  
  
"Nothing to sell, nothing to trade; too wet behind the ears to go topside." One of them said. "Nothing he'll give, anyway."  
  
"We could take it..." another said, eyeing Strife's shoes.  
  
"Information." Root May said. "First newcomer in years. Information for water; that's a fair trade."  
  
"What kind?"  
  
"News. Outside news. From the present world. Like the rumors."  
  
"Too much chatter about the same thing. Whip and Lash talked about heartless in the present world. And then the mouse king, talking about keyblades and stuff."  
  
"We hear things, even down here. Nobodies talk to Shades, Shades talk to us, Newcomers talk, heartless and mindless and Shades and Nobodies bitch among themselves. Talking about heartless in the present world, lead by a human. Destroying ages."  
  
"Which ages, Which ones?"  
  
"Say their leader can't be killed, because he's already dead, even a Nobody, and that he can make heartless."  
  
"Say some mighty warrior has a special sword that's the only thing that can kill them."  
  
"Say he wants to open up the door to Kingdom Hearts. That he has a key to do it."  
  
"Is any of this true? Is it just all Nobody bullcrap?"  
  
Strife looked at the last speaker, Root May. "His name's Ansem. He's the heartless' leader. He destroyed my world, Destiny Islands. Took over Hollow Baston. I don't know about the others."  
  
"Is he...dead? We were their when the door was open, but someone shut it. Who?"  
  
"Yeah...,my friend Sora shut the door, with the keyblade."  
  
One of the crowd stepped forward. "I'm from Twilight Town...your not lying to us, are you? These heartless, this Ansem, they really exists? If Ansem is dead, do you think the heartless will go away, too?"  
  
"I was there. On Hollow Baston. I helped close the door."  
  
Another man stepped forward. "Hollow Baston... Damn. I have family from there. Do you think they'll take Twilight Town, too? Even with this 'Ansem' gone?"  
  
People left the crowd, spreading the up the rings of tiers as a carrier spreads a disease. Whispers passed across the chasm, an ill wind that blows no-one any good. "Hollow Baston... they're on Hollow Baston..." Most people on Yul were from or descendents of Hollow Baston. Others stepped forward to ask about worlds, ask if the heartless would stop their rampage. But seeing the look on Strife's face, they drew back, silent.  
  
It was transparently clear to them, even to Strife. They knew heartless; they may cower for a time without their leader, but their hunger for human hearts would force them out of hiding again, to search for food. For ages. Stating the obvious would just make everyone feel worse.  
  
Faces, Strife's included, turned to Ellos, waiting for her to say something. To announce her home world. Ellos just stared down, looking at her reflection in weapon, a long, S-shaped thing, part sword and part staff, as long as she was tall.  
  
The crowd now looked at Strife with a newfound respect. Maybe the claim he had made wasn't as ludicrous as it had first sounded; maybe he would find a way out of Kingdom Hearts. After all, he had helped close the door; who better to open it again?  
  
Seeing Ellos was not going to answer, Strife turned to Root May, took the cup of water, and walked off.  
... _

Author's Notes

1.) I had to make up a last name for Sora. If anyone knows his real name, review and tell me and I'll change it.

2.) synaesthesia- a dominant, sex-linked genetic disorder where the "wires are crossed" in the nerves controlling senses in the brain. 1 out of 25, 000 people have synaesthesia. It is more common in women, lefties, and people who have a family history of dyslexia, autism, and ADD. Symptoms and Types listed below  
  
Symptoms

- the sensations are involuntary: they can not be suppressed or incurred, though the intensity is influenced by the situation they occur in

- the sensations are projected into the environment: it is not just in the head but the person actually sees a sound or hears a picture, etc.

- the sensations are durable and generic: every time you hear a bell you always see red, it doesn't change over time or situation and will always be experienced with the stimulus

- the sensations are memorable: they are often the aspect of something that is remembered best. For example it may be easier to remember that a person's name is yellow than the name, although the color helps to recall the name

- the sensations are emotional: having this experience causes ecstasy and is viewed as an accomplishment  
  
Types

Coloured-Hearing or Chromaesthesia- sound evokes perception of color

Coloured-Olfaction- smell evokes perception of color

Coloured-Gustation- taste evokes perception of color

Tactile-Gustation- taste evokes a shape

There is also a form where you see colors and hear sound, but I don't know it's name  
...

Adalai- Wootage! It's don-one! And a day early, too! Okay, so Sora and Stinky are still under the endtable; we are trying to lure them out with low-carb mint chocolate chip ice cream and science diet cat food, but so far, it isn't working. And the magic mirror needs Windex, dammit! So Review, until I figure out how the read you mind with this stupid thing! kicks mirror, then hops around on one foot holding the other, howling in pain  
  
Dante, muse of Drama- don't you need a disclaimer for shrek's mirror?  
  
Adalai- fine... don't own the mirror from Shrek, never did, never will, and will probably get arrested for 'borrowing it without asking'.  
...

_What is evil lives forever. _

- Spanish proverb


	4. Chpt 4: Predator

Lightbringer; Chpt. 3- Prey  
  
Adalai- Alright Zena, Disclaimer!  
  
Zena, Muse of Trajedy- Adalai does not own Kingdom Hearts, it's characters, worlds, ect. Those belong to Square and Disney. I do not own charter magic; that is the property of Garth Nix. However, Adalai ownz this fic, Asher, Ellos, Strife, Yul, Alma, Danya, Hector, Root May, Root Kay, The End, the plotline, any new concepts or ideas, and fills my food bowl and cleans my litter box, and that's what matters!  
  
Authors notes at bottom.  
...

**Research Report #3 (a.k.a. the Non-Existent Report)  
**  
_A Note on the Nobody...  
  
The Nobody are a paradox. They are mere shells, bodies without hearts. But many Nobodies have feelings, intelligence, personalities; these traits are only present in those who have hearts. So how can an empty body, a shell without a heart, display characteristics only present in beings with hearts?  
  
Even I, who have studied them, and are one of the few people to have ever killed a Nobody, do not understand them. To understand the Nobody, you must be a Nobody yourself. It is not something that can be taught or described, only experienced and understood. But for the purposes of science and for those who will read this after me, I must try to put that which is the Nobody into words.  
  
I can think of only one way which the enigma that is the heartless could be solved. But to understand it, we must take a look at the two types of Nobody.  
  
There are two types of Nobody; Shells and NEOs (Non-existent ones). All Nobody have a certain amount in common, however; they all wear distinctive black raincoats, and they all died from having their heart destroyed by a heartless and mindless, their bodies disappearing into the In-Between Place.  
  
Shells are exactly what they sound like; bodies without hearts, vessels of the raw power that is the very fabric of the In-Between Place. They have no emotion, intelligence, or any indicators of a heart; they have only two goals. Maintain the Balance (they do so by channeling whatever type of energy or matter that is lacking straight through their bodies from the In- Between Place into the Present World) and Keep all non-Nobodies out of the In-Between Place.  
  
The NEO's, unlike the shells, have all the trapping of a heartened creature; personality, self awareness, ability to change and evolve to it's surroundings, to learn, to think, to reason, and to imagine. They, too, are interested in maintaining and creating balance, but unlike shells, they do not act, they calculate. Not as individuals, but as one, as if they're hearts were all entangled (see research report #2). If you ever have the misfortune of seeing more than one Nobody in battle, they behave as one, in both movements and attacks. They tip the scales by subtlety influencing the actions of others in the Present world; they are deceivers, manipulators, equivocators. I have never known a Nobody to lie, but the truth they say may not be the one you hear.  
  
It is possible that, because of this unnatural ability to act as if they where all connected somehow, that the Nobody do have hearts, just not individual hearts. In order for a heartless or mindless to make another of it's kind, it must first break the heart. A mindless is only made from the darkness inside a heart and the part of the heart in which it resides. The same applies with the mindless, but instead of darkness, light. What happens to the rest of the heart? I believe that the part of the heart disappears with the body into the In-Between Place. There, one of two things can happen. The heart can leave the body, forming a Shell. But if the heart is strong enough, it will stay in the body, and flourish, becoming a NEO.   
  
But for this to happen, outside assistance is needed, a source to provide energy for it's growth. It is possible that, to create new hearts, another Nobody has to entangle the piece of that heart with a 'master heart' which, in turn, is made of all the NEO's entangled hearts. A sum greater than the whole of it's parts, if you will.  
  
A Note on the 6 bodies...   
  
The NEOs have not one body, but six; Physical (body), mental (mind), causal (psyche), etheric (esoteric), emotional (astral), spiritual (soul/heart) that they can "project" outside or inside of their physical body. It is from these projections that most of their powers stem.  
  
There are many theories as to the origin of these bodies. Some say they are shells of the NEO's heart, much like the NEOs themselves are shells. Some say that we all have these bodies, but that only NEO's can project them because they are dead. But I believe that the bodies are the leftover energy from the connection between the body and the heart. As you will see, most of the bodies have a dual existence; they exist both on mental and physical planes. They are listed in order of difficulty to manifest.  
  
Physical (Body)- the body that a NEO manifests in most of the time, since it requires no energy or concentration to maintain. This is the human, physical body the NEO inhabited when they were a person. NEOs keep their hearts inside their physical body, the strongest of the six. Since they are already dead, their bodies do not die easily; the Neo's body must be completely destroyed, or it's head cut off, to kill it.  
  
Mental (Mind)- when projected, this looks exactly like it's owner, except without any mass or weight; that is, it is made entirely of light, like a hologram. It can appear and reappear as it wishes, and go as far away as it's NEO wills it too; unlike the other bodies, it requires no extra energy or concentration to manifest the farther away from the NEO's heart it gets. Strong NEO's can make their Minds manifest in other ages than themselves, even in other worlds. When manifested, however, it and the NEO gain psychic powers; telekenisis, telepathy, pyrokenisis, mind reading, invisibility, ability to serve as a medium, ect. However, the mind cannot physically manipulate it's surroundings. It is mostly used to spy; because the NEO can look through it's eyes and it can become invisible, and to speak to others in dreams or places the NEO cannot go to.  
  
Casual (Psyche)- The Psyche is what is called a person's character or personality. It looks like it's owner, except made of thousands of tiny bolts of lightning. It can be manifested outside or inside the body; when inside, it is the body which allows the Nobody to perform their famous acrobatic tricks. While the Psyche cannot physically manipulate it's surrounding, it can generate and control energy fields, such as light, gravitational and electromagnetic fields, changing it's surroundings through those.  
  
Emotional (Astral)- The astral body is the part of the person that generates emotion and feelings. It also emanates an aura, in both NEO's and humans. NEO's astral bodies can read and manipulate auras. The Astral bodies have speed and strength that far outreaches that of an ordinary human. They can physically remove or 'copy' energy, memories, abilities or hearts from the bodies of humans and store them inside itself; or by manipulating the heart, turn that person into a heartless or mindless. They can enter into and control people's dreams. Astral bodies can shift between being able to manipulate there environment and not being able to; one example of how this is used is a astral bodies attacking humans with blades and even though the blade passes though the torso, only the internal organs are cut, leaving the rest whole. Astral bodies can also wield physical weapons, and many have weapons specially made for their own use out of energy, which are usually sharper and more deadly than their physical counterparts. They look like they are made of colored mist and a net of liquid lightning.  
  
Etheric (Esoteric)- this body is the part of the person that stores memories. Etheric bodies can only be manifested inside the NEO's own body. It can convert energy to matter and vice versa. A NEO that can manifest an esoteric body can convert it's items into energy and store them in it's esoteric body. Many NEOs switch their vital organs with their corresponding chunks of energy in the esoteric body to protect them from harm. When a Etheric body is manifest, the NEO can take on the properties of elements; fire, water, wind, light, dark, ect.  
  
Spiritual (Soul/Heart)- This body is the NEO's heart itself, which can only be manifested is the NEO's heart is fully formed. Again, this can only be manifested inside the NEO's body. When manifested, NEO's can pass through matter and energy freely, and teleport anywhere they wish; anywhere on the age they are on now, to a different age, or a different world altogether, unimpeded by the walls between worlds and ages. Only the Strongest of NEOs can do this.  
  
A Note on Half Dead...  
  
When a human manages to kill a NEO, the NEO's heart goes back into the In- Between Place, and the other 4 bodies (Mind, Casual, Emotional, and Etheric) remain with the human, manifesting in a wing. Thus the NEO's golden rule; you keep what you kill, which applies literally not only to dealing between themselves, but between humans as well.  
  
Half Dead are strong and faster than normal humans, fly with their one wing, and have a better ability to learn and cast magic. They also have a strong mind connection with the entire Nobody, hearing Nobody thoughts and plans inside their head. Some Half Dead even become psychic. Half dead are advantageous to the Nobody. The Half Dead, since they are both human and Nobody, act as bridges that draw the In-Between Place and the Present world closer together and allow for easier movement of the Nobody between the 2 worlds.  
_ ...

_Consciously, Ellos' mind was very human. An interesting human, an interesting mind, but still, a human mind. Ellos' subconscious was a different story. It was significantly less human, a part of Ellos that was older and more powerful that the 19 year old human girl her conscious mind was; it was a whole new animal. Normally however, this part of her brain was just a door in her mind which she did not unlock, not knowing any better than anyone else what was behind it.  
  
But sleep, however, was a different story. The door between conscious and subconscious was blown open; Questing thoughts from her past and from the Nobody ripped and tore at her dreams, and all the crazy hoodoo Elloses ran amok in her mind. Only in dreams was she not allowed the privacy of self.  
  
The memory manifested itself in a visible metaphor.  
  
Far away, on the edge of the present world, between 2 miniscule, uninhabited worlds, an evil grew. A small amount of darkness and light existed, but it was flawed, incomplete. Instead of striving to achieve balance, at first they fought against each other, trying to destroy each other. Spreading, it came across it's creator. Dying, the man who created the evil became one with it.  
  
And thus the End was born.  
  
Unified, it began to grow, to evolve, to spread. Long tentacles extended to swallow worlds, small at first, so as to be unnoticed by the inhabitants of other worlds. Tentacles rained down darkness and lightning upon the worlds, each drop becoming a mindless or a heartless. It was cautious; It would not underestimate it's enemy a second time, weak and divided though its enemy was.  
  
Suddenly, drawing all it's strength into it's self, a hand trust out of the mass, composed entirely of heartless and mindless. It stretched out across many worlds, all of them falling under its shadow. But it did not notice the fall of these worlds. It's mind was elsewhere.  
  
Finally, It came upon a string of ages. Large, peaceful, lush ages; some deserts, some forests, some covered in seas, all home to advanced, peaceful, happy civilizations, guarded over by their protectors, mysterious beings that could create new ages. Each age they created bore their signature; huge, hollow trees, filled with plant and animal life, the width of large cities and so tall they reached out of the planet's atmosphere; their homes.  
  
The End reached it's hand out and crushed these worlds in it's palm. Trees, cities, mountains, civilizations all crumbled to dust; the crust of the ages sloughed off like so many layers of grime and dirt from a flawless gem. Opening it's hand, only swirling balls of energy remained; the ages' hearts. The huge, hollow trees remained on the surface of the heart; their roots extending deep into the heart, gaining substance from it. From those hearts, an ancient race emerged. They were agents of chaos; their bodies mutable and constantly changing, composed of opposites; flesh and energy, light and darkness, animal and plant. Their bodies took the shape of things that had originally been on their worlds; things from nature, from the imagination, creatures long dead or from myth, from the civilizations on the planet; the only thing they had in common was a large, flower-shaped organ on the side of the head.  
  
They fought bravely, but to no avail. The End simply shook them from his hand, each one of them falling into oblivion.  
  
Except for one. Hanging on from the hand's thumb, was one of the creatures, in the form of a young women, only a few years old than Ellos, with vivid green eyes and gray skin and black hair. Screaming for revenge. Screaming against the End which had destroyed her home. Screaming against the Nobody, who had abandoned them to their fate. Screaming, Screaming...  
_ ...

The Heartless where dust.  
  
What advanced on us a column of swirling clouds of superfine black dust particles. Constantly shifting and changing, never less each cloud had some definition; they looked like vague forms of Neo Heartless. The Heartless crest was present on their stomach, etched by red particles; their eyes where made of tight clusters of black particles that glowed yellow, like heartless eyes. The swarms didn't move like them though; the heartless drifted over the ground, not moving their feet. The particles seemed the bob up and down, side to side, and in and out, with a sort of thrumming sound, patches of the black dust catching the sun, shimmering silver. Twisting one way, then another.  
  
They where swarming.  
  
As they came closer, they stopped, just outside of gun and arrow range. They seemed to be thinking, examining us; trying to see what they would do next. But that was impossible; heartless didn't think, didn't examine, didn't work together like this.  
  
And yet they were thinking. Suddenly, each swarm of particles seemed to expand and grow larger, creating more particles and then condensing into a solid form similar to a Neo Heartless. They arranged themselves in a ragged line, preparing to charge.  
  
On top of the hill, Kairi and the others where preparing, too. Kairi twirled her quarterstaff in front of her. It was about ¾ her height, hollow, and made of dull metal. I_ should have brought my pike_, Kairi thought. It had a longer reach, and a blade at the end, but it would have been harder for her to control. Holding it out in front of her, she got ready for the heartless' charge. Concentrating, she fought her rising panic. What had happened? How had the heartless changed so much? Kairi fell into position, the void coming easily to her now, a state of relaxed concentration that was necessary to fight well. Glancing on her sides, she looked at the other two warriors next to her.  
  
Auron, a big man in a large red coat, held his gun in front of him, looking down the barrel, aiming at the heartless. He was calm and composed, as always. On her other side stood a tall, busty woman with dark brown hair and sienna brown eyes that almost at times looked red. Holding a boxer's stance, she was dancing back and forth on either foot, hands at the ready. Tifa actually seemed excited by the heartless' presence; she had been complaining about how she hadn't had a good workout since she came to Destiny Islands. Although both very different in terms of personalities, they where both good warriors who had fought against the heartless before.  
  
_Stay with them and remember what you learned and you'll be ok_, Kairi thought, trying to reassure herself. This would be the first time she would fight against a foe who was trying to harm her, not just one of her friends, training her.  
  
The heartless where in 3 rows, one behind the other. They where looking at the sky, which was now filled of rainclouds, waiting for something.  
  
"They're waiting for the rain." Auron said. "I don't know why, though."  
  
With a tremendous clap of thunder, it started to rain. The heartless advanced, slowly at first, then gaining speed, until they where practically sprinting up the hill, charging head first at Kairi and the others.  
  
"Stupid Heartless; you think they would know better by now." Tifa said, balling her hands into fists.  
  
When the heartless where five feet away, she braced herself, expecting the heartless to slam into her.  
  
But it didn't happen. And then the world slipped out from under her. Literaly.   
  
The front row sank low and spread over the ground underneath them. The mixture of black particles and rain caused the ground to develop a black, slippery coating.  
  
Kairi gasped as her feet shot out from under her, as if the ground under her was ice. On blind instinct, she thrust her quarterstaff into the ground, using it to stay up on her feet.  
  
The rest of the warriors were not so lucky. What had originally been their asset of high ground was now their hindrance. Losing their footing, the others either slid downward into the waiting heartless or fell on the ground to be devoured by the black swarms.  
  
Kairi looked around for Auron and Tifa. She didn't see Auron, but Tifa had fallen on the ground. Watching in horror, Kairi saw Tifa scrambled to get up again, but couldn't; she kept slipping and falling and sliding back down on the black surface. Particles drifted up into her nose, her eyes, and her hair, pouring down in her mouth and choking her. Her skin was turning red and she was screaming as if she was in extreme pain.  
  
Kairi didn't stop to watch what happened next. Channeling the spell down into the black coating through her quaterstaff, she yelled "Gravira!" the coating stopped shifting under her, and began to vibrate, trying to break free of the gravitation forces imposed upon them by Gravira. Kairi ran to Tifa.  
  
Sensing a weak spot in Kairi's spell, the swarm bunched up, forcing it's way to the surface, right in front of Kairi. It tried to form the shape of a neo-heartless, but because of Gravira, couldn't, only able to form a vaguely humanoid form with particles dropping in clouds from it's arms, it's movements slow and heavy.  
  
Kairi didn't hesitate. She hit it on it's knees with her quarterstaff, sweeping it's legs out from under it. Now down on the ground and visibility struggling to keep it's shape, Kairi thrust her quarterstaff down on it's neck, normally a killing blow. But in this case, the head simply dropped off, the particles rejoining those on the ground. She kept on hitting in, tearing of limbs and pieces of it's torso until there was no more left. By this time, the vibrating had gotten so strong she could feel it through her boots. She ran off the Tifa.  
  
Tifa was now on the ground, black from head to toe. Her mouth was a dark hole, particles streaming into it like a river, her breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps. Her eyes had turned from sienna brown to pitch black. Her legs stuck straight out, her whole body stiff and wracked with spasms, in the throes of a seizure. She was dying.  
  
"Oh my god, Tifa!" Kairi rushed over, casting Fire to kill the black particles and casting Curaga on Tifa. Draping Tifa's arm over her neck, she dug the end of her quarterstaff in the ground the help her balance on the slippery surface; the Gravira spell had worn off by now.  
  
Dragging Tifa with her, she thrust the end of her staff into the ground once again. The black coating on the ground was moving, shifting in big waves, trying to knock her off her feet. Above her, lightning flashed, as if in expectation of the spell she was about to cast.  
  
"Thundaga!" Kairi yelled. Lightning from the storm raced downward and through her and her staff, which had become a lightning rod, strengthening her spell. Lightning raced out from the end that was thrust into the ground, through the swarms, causing the tiny particles to lose their shapes and drift off, dying, in the storm's winds. Lightning bolts came down from the sky, vaporizing the swarm heartless as well. Tiny lightning bolts raced over Kairi's body and hair.

Holding on as long as she could, she finally dropped on the ground, exhausted. Every heartless was gone; but everyone save her and Tifa was gone, too. Tifa had regained consciousness beside her, and was coughing up blood, black with heartless particles. Kairi had a feeling that the swarm heartless was doing more to Tifa than just choking her.   
  
"Very, very good. Perhaps you to will make good Mindless after all."  
  
Weak, Kairi looked around for the speaker. Her eyes fell of the hem of a black robe. Traveling upward, she saw a figure, a little on the short side, wrapped in a black raincoat, thin and muscular, holding 2 spiked wheels in either hand. Traveling farther up still, she saw a man's face, with triangular scars under evilly glinting green eyes, just a hint of insanity in them. He had her round face, with her small, well sculpted features, and her red hair.  
  
"But, I might just kill you instead if you tell me where Sora is."  
...

_"Curse the fool boy!" Ellos roared. She was mad, really mad. Strife seemed to be the only one who could piss her off like that, with his infuriating smirk and superior attitude of his. Mad enough to take a twilight walk on the surface of Yul.  
  
Not that you could really call it walking. More like slipping off hot boulders, sliding down volcanic slopes, cutting yourself on volcanic glass, dodging lava bombs, jumping into and out of crevices, and pausing to kill heartless and mindless as more or less a distraction between heavier jobs.  
  
The heartless saw her coming and scattered. Not because they where afraid of her; heartless did not feel emotion, or fear. Heartless had no language; they communicated, to some extent, through how they moved and simple gestures. Ellos, having grown up surrounded by heartless, had learned these motions and their meanings. Eventually they became second nature to her, so that when she was angry, she moved in the same way a heartless did when it wanted others of it's kind to leave her alone.  
  
"Piss off, pip-squeak." She said, kicking a Shadow heartless to the side. Instead of moving away, as it should have done, this heartless disintegrated into a cloud of superfine dust, which divided into 3 groups, cutting off her exit and advancing toward her.  
  
Ellos grinned. She had hoped she would find some of these.  
  
They where called Predator Heartless. Newer than the original heartless, they appeared in Kingdom Hearts about the same time she had arrived. They were the same as any other heartless, except for one thing; a sort of artificial intelligence, called PREDATOR, built into them.  
  
PREDATOR and the normal notion of AI were vastly different, however. In AI, rules are written to cover every very possible contingency. But then the program would make mistakes and new rules would be made to correct the mistakes. Soon the program was huge, and it would be huge and have so many bugs it would fail completely. PREDATOR was different. The approach was bottom up; their where little or no rules, only a defined goal; take hearts and reproduce. The behavior of individuals or the heartless as a whole was not defined. Instead, the behavior emerged on it's own, the result of thousands of small interactions with the it's environment, building on past experience and evolving accordingly.  
  
Specifically, PREDATOR was designed to help define secondary goals to achieve the primary goal modeled after predator/prey dynamics and models. Because of this, it could sometimes have surprising and lifelike results. As they encountered different environments, they evolved into different types of heartless, radically different from the original types. Not only that, but new types where constantly emerging, and old types changing to adapt to their environments.  
  
Ellos watched. These were Swarm heartless. They were made of millions of tiny particles, to the size of around 100 nanometers, which looked like swirling clouds made of superfine, black dust. Ellos pulled out her gun and began to load it.  
  
Something whizzed by her ear, hitting the crevice wall just above her shoulder, stone chip's flying. Ducking instinctively, she turned around and saw a bullet, buried in the stone, made of the same black dust as the swarm heartless.  
  
Tricky little things. Condensing black particles in a small mass and propelling it out of their bodies, they had copied the exact design of the bullets to her gun, probably from memory, and used it as a weapon against it's owner; the irony did not escape Ellos. Before the Swarm heartless could prepare another bullet, she reached into the Charter, plucking out 3 signs, and released them on the heartless. Originally a spell to completely immolate a body into ashes so it could not be used to make a Dead Hand, it completely destroyed the Swarm heartless around her.  
  
Something so simple...  
  
Something so natural as the joy of the kill. After all her darkness, all her pain, all her abuse and neglect, how something so simple and human as killing could bring her happiness and peace. Maybe she had a heart. Even if it was full of darkness and anger. _

___  
  
From the ashes of the swarm rose the heart, like a phoenix from the pyre. Pieces of red and yellow floated up, reforming in a heart, then turning blue and grey. It was a Shade, a dead heart. Drifting off, it headed towards the Heart of Kingdom Hearts, if such a thing existed.  
  
Looking around, she shivered. Night was coming; she needed to get inside before she became a giant Ellos-sicle. Snow began to fall, not made of frozen water, but of dry ice. Fingering the bullet she had pulled from it's surrounding stone, she remembered the events that had brought her here, starting innocently enough with a chess game with gun shells. Walking fast, Ellos headed for a nearby molehole, anger forgotten. If she could live in either hell or Yul, she'd go live in hell. At least the climate was consistent.  
... _

Ellos and Strife were playing chess. Ellos had drawn the board in the dirt on the floor of the Roots' chamber. Unloading shells from her gun and placing them on the second row of the board, Ellos' pawns maintained the shape, if not the form, of their predecessors in the present world, as well as her other chess pieces.  
  
To the casual observer, Strife appeared to be studying his chess pieces intensely, despite the impediment of his blindfold. But in reality he was lost in thought. Unable to see the chess board in great detail, he constructed a mental map of the chess board in his head. Fingering the plasma shell that was to be his pawn, Strife made his first move. Pieces moved on boards both physical and mental.  
  
Ellos moved her own pawn, calling out the move for Strife's benefit. It was silver, not black, despite the rules that the black side must go second. Strife's side of the board also was not white; white never seemed like a good color for Strife, for some reason. Each piece was a different color; silver shells from Ellos' gun, coppery purple-red plasma shells, yellow plastic shotgun rounds, neither side completely white or black. More like real life, that way.  
  
"Describe, in your own and in as few words as possible, the String Theory." Root Kay called from her perch on the wall, where she was reading a book. This is the way in which Ellos was educated. Ellos would be assigned to read a book. After she was finished, they would randomly and without warning quiz her on subjects in the books. Points where rewarded for clarity, quickness, and ability to summarize.  
  
Ellos responded, not taking her eyes from the board. "Quarks are not particles but 2 dimensional vibrating strings of planck length, which is 1 x 10ˆ-66 centimeters"  
  
Strife had no idea where or how they had gotten books from. There where certainly no bookmakers on Yul. This was just one of many things he did not understand about Kingdom Hearts; shades, Nobody, how they provided atmosphere in the Shelter and kept it from getting to hot or cold, the use of the machine in the bottom of the cavern.  
  
Ellos turned to Strife. "You turn." She said, fingering her shotgun shell-turned-bishop.  
  
But Strife was thinking. Snapping from his revere, Strife asked "What are shades?"  
  
"A shade is what a heart becomes after a person dies."  
  
"How do shades get into Kingdom Hearts?"  
  
Ellos looked at Strife. She knew what he was insinuating. "Through the High Road." The High Road was a sort of road that went through all the ages of Kingdom Hearts, built long ago by the original inhabitants of Kingdom Hearts. It was protected from heartless and mindless and from the deadly conditions of the ages it passed through.  
  
"I was thinking" Strife said, "that since the shades enter Kingdom Hearts on this road, it must have some kind of entrance into the Present World. One we can pass through."  
  
Ellos stared at the ground. She was battling two emotions; desire to keep a promise she had made many years ago, and wanting to tell Strife all she knew about the High Road so that she could see the home he had talked so fondly of, Destiny Islands. So she could see the ocean. Finally, Ellos decided on a compromise.  
  
"Don't try. No one knows where the High Road is on this age, and besides, only hearts can pass through it's entrance."  
  
"And you would know that how?" Root May asked. There was deathly silence in the room.  
  
Ellos got up. "I think I'll go topside this evening. Get some stuff." Masking her true feelings and thoughts, she grabbed her jacket and left.  
...

no author's notes  
...

Adalai: Wootage. This chapter is dedicated to Charon-of-the-depths, who is my first reviewer! And a fine chapter it is; complete with my first real battle scene! Sorry for being so rough on Tifa. _Gets knifed by Tifa fans_ Thanks for your support! Nice to know I have a fan. Zena, show Charon his/her prize! And go read Charon's Story, A light in the Darkness. Vivi the black mage is my favorite character. :D  
  
Zena- and Charon gets... a gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream! The good kind, not the low carb kind!  
  
Adalai: hey, where's Stinky and Sora? They're not under the endtable anymore!  
  
_Goes upstairs and finds Strife playing on the PS2 and Sora on the sofa_  
  
Sora: Defence! Whoo Whoo! Defence!  
  
Strife: ok, ok! It was funny the first time, but you didn't have to do it SEVENTEEN TIMES!!!!!!  
  
Adalai: Whatcha doin'?  
  
Sora: well, Strife's playing the Bouncer, and every time he increases his defense, I go...  
  
Adalai: you know what, I just realized I probably don't want to know...  
  
Zena: fine, Sofa, just help Adalai put up the mirror.  
  
Sora: It's Sora.  
  
Zena: fine, Sosa...  
  
Sora: Sora!  
  
Zena: Whatever, just GET!  
  
Zena: Ok, Sora and Ellos are putting up the mirror _hears crashing sounds in background_ Uhhh... check that. While Sora and Ellos _replace_ the mirror, you will have to review. So review please, and get free imaginary ice cream.

...

_I'm Nobody! Who are you?  
Are you Nobody, too?  
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!  
They'd banish us, you know. _

_How dreary to be somebody!  
How public, like a frog  
To tell your name the livelong day  
To an admiring bog!_

_ - Nobody, By Emily Dickenson_


	5. Chpt 5: Of Many, One

Lightbringer; Chpt. 5- Of Many, One  
  
Adalai- Alright Dante, Disclaimer!  
  
Dante, Muse of Drama- Adalai does not own Kingdom Hearts, it's characters, worlds, ect. Those belong to Square and Disney. Adalai does not own sunstones either; those belong to Garth Nix. I also do not own the Artisan's age; that belongs to the makers of Spyro. However, Adalai ownz this fic, Asher, Ellos, Strife, Yul, Alma, Danya, Hector, Root May, Root Kay, The End, the plotline, any new concepts or ideas, and fills my food bowl and cleans my litter box, and that's what matters! Adalai also apologizes for philosophy in the Research report #4 and references to quantum mechanics and general relativity in the last section.  
  
Authors notes at bottom.  
...

Research Report #4 (a.k.a. the Evil Report)  
  
_A note on worlds...  
  
In the Ansem report, 4 worlds are stated.  
  
Present _

_Darkness _

_Light _

_In-Between  
  
I have been to three worlds in my travels  
  
Present _

_Kingdom Hearts _

_In-Between  
  
I believe that the world of darkness and the world of light are in reality the same world. But the question is: which world is it? One possibility could be the present world. The present world is a blend of darkness and light. Another is the In-Between world; it is an existence between darkness and light, and it's inhabitants, the Nobody, exist to create balance. Another is Kingdom Hearts. Strange though it may sound, because there is no visible light in kingdom hearts, or elemental light, I, for some reason, believe it to be true. Call it a women's intuition, if you will. Note that in all these worlds, despite their differences, they all have both darkness and light. The more light you have, the more darkness you have as well. Perhaps because there is a lot of darkness in Kingdom Hearts, their must be a lot of light there as well. Maybe we don't see it because it is hidden from us somehow. As a scientist, I know that surface impressions can sometimes be misleading.  
  
When I was young, someone told me a bedtime story about a race of people who lived, bathed in the true light. Then they tried to take the light for themselves, and evil was born in their hearts. It swallowed everything, except for the true light in the children's hearts, which they used to build a new world.  
  
While this is just a bedtime story, I believe there is some truth to it. There have been evidence of civilization in Kingdom Hearts; some worlds I have found in Kingdom Hearts, there are ruins of cities. Also, the High Road is obviously man-made. Perhaps these are evidence of the children the story? Something made them leave this world of Kingdom Hearts, to degenerate into the state it is now in. But why? They then resettled in either the Present world or the In-Between World. Or did they settle in both, and the story mixed up the 2 worlds, mistaking them for one? If so, who are their descendents? Perhaps the first nobody are these children, who gave up their hearts to create this new world(s)? And to survive, entangled their hearts together? Is this why the Nobody seek to maintain balance in the universe? Is it a throwback from the original children?  
  
A Note on Evil...  
  
What, exactly, is evil? What is it's definition? There are 3 possible definitions.  
  
Evil is a positively existing reality. And example would be the belief that elemental darkness and dark energy is evil and elemental light and light energy is good. Held by many, but disproved by the Mindless, who are evil and elemental light-based. Evil is an illusion, created by ignorance and a bad environment. Disproved by the Heartless, whom are evil, but not illusions. Evil exists, but not as a positively existing reality. Evil is a lack of due order.  
  
I personally believe evil is #3. Allow me to explain this. Imagine that you dig a hole in the ground. The hole exists, but you can't pick it up, or touch it, or hold it in you hand; It exists because of a lack of something, or a negative existence, instead of an excess of something, or a positive existence. Evil is a lack; it is a deficiency in the nature of a thing. For example, a lack of compassion in a person is evil. The person his/herself is not evil, but the absence of compassion in that person's nature is evil.  
  
However, not all lacks are evil. If a person lacks the ability to fly, is the absence of the ability to fly evil? No. St. Augustine took the definition and expanded on it; He said that Evil is a lack of due order. Another way of putting this is that evil is a privation.  
  
There are 2 types of lacks; privation and negation  
  
Negation- lacking something that is not part of your nature to begin with. An example of such would be the lack of flight in human. We never had it, never will have it, so it's lack in our natures is not evil. You can't miss what you never had.  
  
Privation- lacking something which is part of your nature. An example would be lack of patience in a person. That lack would be evil because human beings have the ability to be patient in their nature.  
_ ...

The diversity of Twilight town's citizens was amply evident in it's politics; Leon had to remind himself, not for the first time today, to keep that in mind and try not to kill the other politicians with them in the Senate. At the moment, those diverse politics where undergoing an upheaval that was partially due to his own stupidity. He had wasted 1.5 million in munny on a female mercenary half dead from arsenic poisoning. He had figured that someone would try and fake the prisoner to get the reward money, except that all the paperwork checked out; nothing was faked. It had Ellos' DNA, fingerprints and photo. Also, the mercenary that was turned in had Ellos' clothing. Leon guessed that the mercenary had caught Ellos and she escaped, and the mercenary, not wanting to admit she had lost her prisoner, drugged her partner and turned her in place of Ellos.  
  
That had made an already tense political atmosphere turn into one uneasily balanced between practically outright hand to hand combat and verbal abuse. Yelling and shouting filled the Senatorial building, and if the senators had weapons, they would probably be fighting as well.  
  
There was one exception to this. Leon was, of course, calm and outwardly uncaring as always. As a delegate, he did not participate in any of the actual decisions; he was more of an advisor. After all this was done, he knew much would be said- and little done. So their shouting did not bother him so much. Yuffie was standing, busy getting her own two cents into the conversation. Aeris sat down in her chair, merely listening to the conversation. Like most inhabitants of Twilight Town and, some could argue, the entire human race, she was keen on predictability, order, and peace. None of which were present in this room. Or would continue to be, if people kept shouting and arguing like this. Cloud had already gotten up and left. She was considering doing the same, when the defense minister, or proconsul 1, spoke.  
  
"Shut down gummi travel between the ages! We cannot keep running the trains when the worlds are falling silent again! If my defense is to be effective, I must not have ALL THESE HOLES IN IT!!!! We must patch up the shield portals 2, out World wall is our best defense against the heartless! I won't have it weakened! I..."  
  
And she was drowned out by protesting voices, again. It was a miracle that she had gotten to say so much uninterrupted. The Travel minister complained that doing that would trap too many Twilight Town citizens in other worlds, without any way home. The Trade minister complained that it would cut off trade with other worlds that needed the raw materials from Twilight town to survive. The Economics minister side with the Trade minister, saying cutting off trade would destroy the economy, put thousands out of work, and cause a crash in the already fragile stock market. Others said it would cause mass panic and traffic clogs, because the trains where the main form of travel, not only between the worlds, but to the planetary husks and between and in cities.  
  
The Proconsul was adamant. She continued to argue, saying age defense should be everyone's top priority, the volume of her voice and on her speaker steadily rising.  
  
"Yuffie." Aeris said, pulling the 20 year-old back down in her seat, after she finished a particularly juicy curse directed at the defense minister. "Just because Cloud isn't here doesn't mean that you can say that." Adeliaus, one of the four aediles, spoke against the proconsul's statement. "We are the leader of the Twilight system. If we show fear in the face of this danger, they have already won half the battle. And what message would cowering in our own defenses send? We set the example for all the Twilight ages. So far this is just a rumor; tighten defenses and everyone will panic and think it is true. And what if we are wrong? We could seriously damage some of our surrounding ages, who need trade with us to survive.  
  
"Rumor? A Rumor?" a Censor said, voice so panicked that it was to the point of cracking. "7 edge worlds have gone silent. 7! In 5 days! The Final Fantasy worlds are still unaccounted for!" he said, waving to the 15 odd empty chairs in the representative section of the Senate. "And when have we last heard from the Traverse System? Or the Disney Kingdoms? We have advisors here from worlds that have gone missing! Ask them what happened yourselves!" The last remark was aimed at Leon and his friends.  
  
Another voice spoke, deep and authoritative. "Rumor! Is it a rumor that 12 ages has gone silent!" the aforementioned Censor began flipping through his notes, as if the 5 missing ages could be found in his paperwork. "That we have lost communication with _another_ age? That heartless infest the sewers below cities so badly that nightly patrols must go and thin their ranks so they do not become a problem to the citizens? What about all these new types of Heartless, these _Swarm_ heartless? Patrols say that they evolve and learn from the past; they shoot bullets at them one night, and the heartless shoot their own bullets at them the next! And what of these new white heartless? These _Mindless_?" He shot back.  
  
Another voice began speaking over the fray, this one a Muslim cleric. Even in this time of advanced technology, there were still advantages to a loud voice. "Silence in one age suggests communications failure, an unlocked keyhole, political, cultural, religious, and or economic instability or turmoil, of heartless uncovering by chance the heart of the age in their blind wanderings. But 12 ages in 5 days suggests something more sinister. It suggests coordination, leadership. That the heartless are being controlled again. You all know to what I refer."  
  
The Senators began to murmur, buzzing like bees in a jar. Someone asked "But who could have the power to control them? The original controllers are dead. We should try to contact them, negotiate with them."  
  
The Muslim cleric continued. He was very charismatic; he would have had a good future in politics if he had not chosen to follow a life of piety. "We must continue to look for those who wield the Keyblades. And we must consult the Nobody on this matter."  
  
Adeliaus spoke again. "Cleric, your beliefs are not our beliefs. Keyblades and Nobody are bedtime stories. Many here do not believe in the keyblades, and it has been so long since a Nobody came to the Twilight system they have become myths, if they were even real in the first place."  
  
The Muslim cleric glanced in Squall's direction. "We have the Director of the Bell Tower here. We recently made a joint offer with the Nobody's cooperation for someone they believe can find the keyblade wielder. And he was there when Kingdom..."  
  
"13 worlds!" the panicky Censor said, typing furiously on his laptop, voice way past breaking now. "A gummi ship captain spotted a fraction of the age Twilight MCDXV (1,415) in intra-space just now!"  
  
Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Those close to the panicky Censor leaned over, trying to get a better look at the laptop screen. "MCDXV... the Artisans Age... in the Dragon Kingdoms..." the Delgates of the Dragon kingdoms (all dragons, of course) got up and left hastily, to get to the nearest train to go back to their home ages.  
  
Leon stood up, clearing his throat in the microphone, to catch the crowd's attention. "Yes, we are sheltering two Nobody in the Bell Tower at this time, who are staying with us until we can deliver the person who can find the Keyblade wielder. Until then..."  
  
"At LEAST 13 ages gone quiet in 5 days!" the proconsul said, emphasizing 'least'. "How much more proof do you need? We need to defend ourselves now! My department has no need of more evidence than that! Can we be any blinder to what is happening around us! We must PREPARE! NOW!!!"  
  
Another Aedile, Adeliaus' Ally, spoke. "But it is not worlds in this system. Only edge ages, ages in between our system and other systems. We are not countries; we share no physical boarders with these ages that have gone silent. Those ages on the inside of the system experience no problem with the heartless; in fact, Twilight Town is the only age to experience any heartless presence.  
  
I understand why you are afraid. Many of you had families and charges in this system and the other systems that were attacked. You are afraid the same thing that happened 4 years ago will happen again. But we survived that, and we will survive it again. Even then, the Heartless did not visit all worlds. 4 years ago, the Heartless left the Disney Kingdoms untouched. And Traverse system? Only 1 world was destroyed, Destiny Islands, and even then, the worlds where able not only to defend themselves, but also to destroy the heartless and their leaders. I'm not saying I believe in a magical key that will save us from the heartless..." the aedile defended, for the benefit of the skeptics. "...but I just want to prove that the heartless have been defeated on worlds less prepared and advanced than ours. We do not know when, or if! the same thing will come to Twilight Town, or where 'they' will strike next. Time drives all things before it..." the aedile said, quoting Machiavelli's _The Prince_, "and may lead to good as well as evil.  
  
The proconsul stood up, not noticing Leon, Aeris, and Yuffie slip out through a back exit. Now was not the time for talking! It was the time for action! She needed them to help her help them. "Shut down the outside defenses. We need to not make ourselves a target! We need..." Adeliaus and his supporters rose, all talking at the same time. Adeliaus began a large, longwinded speech, barely her over the rest of the Senate, now a maelstrom of angry voices. "showing fear... cowering in the dark...refused to be stamped into a decision...unnecessary...not to the Ideals on which Twilight Town was founded... do what we have always done; share..."  
  
The proconsul's supporters rose from their chairs, defending themselves against their enemies. Proconsul versus aediles, supporter versus questioner, glared at each other from across the room, debate raging around the senators like flies around rancid meat. All had the best interests of their world in mind. Few had fathomed even the faintest idea of what 'they' had in store for them. None had any idea of the importance of the woman their sins and fate had brought back to this dread, dark shore.  
...

Leon strolled down the waterways of Old Venice, headed toward the Bell Tower. The area was settled by survivors of an age called Earth, four years ago when the heartless first began to devour their worlds. After their worlds where restored, they returned to Twilight Town; some because it was too difficult to return to the past, some because they had made a life and friends in Twilight Town that they didn't want to leave. Whatever the reason, they came back and updated it area, setting up homes and shops, installing modern technology behind walls and under streets so as not to ruin the romantic charm of the place. It was designed after a famous city on their age, Venice. Full of atmosphere, it soon became one of the city's most famous and romantic districts. Instead of streets it had water canals, like it's predecessor on Earth. Boats floated up and down the canals and under wooden bridges. Shops sold expensive Venetian paper-mâche masks; with feathers, gold trim, and rhinestones.  
  
Stopping in the center square of Old Venice, Yuffie pointed at five men, dressed in elaborate, expensive costumes, and with Venetian masks designed to imitate jesters. "Comeon Squall, can we listen to the Honkers? Please?"  
  
"It's Leon and fine, you can listen to one song."  
  
Jumping up and down like a human bouncy ball, Yuffie dropped a tip in one of the five's collection plate. The 'Honkers' came from a long tradition of musicians on a far away world in the Twilight system. After they're world was destroyed by the heartless, they used their skills to make money to survive. Many stayed on after their age was destroyed, becoming rich off private performances.  
  
The novelty of the Honkers was in their costumes; they were very old and expensive, often passed down in the family. They had horns sown in the suits, situated behind their knees and elbows and on the chest, so that by moving their bodies, they would squeeze and honk the horns, playing a variety of tunes, from Beethoven to popular music to lullabies, moving in a jerky, repetitive dance that Cloud called 'step aerobics from hell'.  
  
Moving on, they headed home to the Bell Tower.  
  
The Bell Town was shaped like a giant, up-side down T. It was built on two giant concrete foundations in the middle of the main canal of Old Venice. The bottom of the upside-down T was 2 buildings, the West wing and the East wing. The East wing served as an orphanage, hotel, living quarters, kitchen, storage, labs, and shops. The West wing served as a hangar for gummi ships, Cid's accessory shop, and various workshops. In-between the two buildings was an arch under which the canal cut through, and served as a habor for ships entering the Bell Tower. There was also a small, private train station which cut over the rooftops of Old Venice and ended on the roof of the East wing. The shaft of the upside-down T was the actual bell tower itself. Topped with a clay-tiled roof, the tower had two metal arms extending from it's sides, each of which had two bells, one large, one small. The front and back sides of the tower had clock faces. The actual bell tower itself was made of gummi blocks; it served as a shelter for the whole of Old Venice in case of heartless attack; heartless could not teleport inside areas surrounded by gummi blocks.  
  
Bellow the bells of the bell tower, on each of the four sides of the tower, were 2 metal poles, sticking out of the tower's side. Between the two poles a fine, multicolored, mesh net was hung. Inside that net where chips of clear crystal which burned with the brilliance of small suns. They were called sunstones, magic from an age called Seven Towers, after the castle that the people who made these stones resided. That technology was brought to Twilight town, and used to make the thin, multi-purpose ornate spires called sunspires. When these stones where ready, they would be brought down and set on top of these spires, replacing the older, worn out ones.  
  
The sun was just beginning to come out from over the horizon. Leon blinked; that meant that the debate in the Senate had raged all night and all of yesterday; funny, it hadn't felt that long. Looking up, he saw the residents of the Bell Tower readying themselves for the day. On the widow's walk 3on top of the West wing, Cid was pacing around, probably smoking a cigar, and taking a break from his work. He had tried to quit smoking cigars, unsuccessfully, 4 years ago. Cloud and one of the Nobody, the blindfolded one, where sparring on top of the widow's walk as well; Cloud with his gigantic buster sword, and the Nobody with his bat-wing shaped sword. Across the channel, a dog was barking. A door opened; Riona's head peeked out, yelling "SHUT UP!!!" before closing the door again. He request was obeyed; for 2 seconds. Then the barking started up again.  
  
On top of the tower, the Dual-wielding Nobody was sitting on top of the bell tower. 3 people where sitting on his left, two on the right, making them 6 people in total. They were all kids from the Bell Tower's orphanage, who had had befriended in the time he had stayed here. Having abandoned the Nobody's distinctive black raincoat in favor of black and white clothes, he sat in the middle, holding a large, trophy-like piece of machinery, with 6 sunstones attached to it.  
  
Reaching out, he plucked what, from a distance, looked like a clear sphere. He passed it down to the last kid to the left, in jeans, red T-shirt, and a white jacket. The kid held it up in the air, revealing it to be a red, equilateral triangular pyramid; a tetrahedron4. Catching the morning sun's first rays, it began to glow. Around the city, half of the sunspires came on line, glowing with red light.  
  
Moving from the left to the right, the Nobody passed out the sunstones to the orphans, who held them up to the sun, each activating half of the remaining sunspires, which then glowed the same color as the sphere. Next came an orange cube, then a yellow octahedron (geometric solid with 8 triangular sides), then a green dodecahedron (geometric solid with 12 pentagonal sides), then a blue icosahedron (20 sided geometric figure). Plucking the last figure from the machine, a violet sphere, and holding it to the sun, the Nobody watched the as the last of the sunspires came online, glowing purple.  
  
All the sunspires shot white lines of light out, connecting them to the sunspires closest to them. Then, each sunspire cast a white light upwards, which spread outward, forming a rainbow-colored shield over the city, which slowly faded away, invisible but still there. Satisfied, the 6 handed their sunstones back to the Nobody, who replaced them in the machine.  
  
The Bell tower also contained the machinery that operated the sunspires of Twilight Town. The same ritual would be preformed at sunset, lowering the shield and brightening the spheres so they could light the nighttime streets of Twilight Town. Smiling, the Nobody teleported them down from the top of the tower, all six disappearing in a flash of black lightning.  
...

Laughing and joking, the six walked down the main isle of the west wing, made out of a highly polished, marble-like substance. At first glance, no one would have thought that the blonde-haired kid was a Nobody; he seemed like a normal kid, joking and talking with his newfound friends. Not like the tall, powerful Nobody of myth, quiet and aloof and imposing. By his side, a girl with shoulder-length brown hair and eyes, dressed in yellow and orange, was talking animatedly, trying to convince him to do something. The Nobody listened politely, hands folded behind his back, head slightly tilted down.  
  
"You need to tell your friend to come down and... well, mingle a little. He may be a Nobody, but that doesn't mean he has to act like one, all aloof all the time. I mean, you're a Nobody and you come down and..."  
  
"Alright, slow down." He said, not bothering to correct her of the fact that Strife was not, technically, a Nobody. Natalia was like that; very bubbly and talktative. If he didn't stop her, she could go on like that for a while. "Who is it this time?"  
  
"Why, whatever do you mean?" Natalia asked, trying to look innocent. And failing miserably. Natalia loved to play matchmaker, and everyone knew it. "Listen, I'll talk to him. But please leave him out of your little matchmaking games."  
  
The Nobody sighed. Strife just wasn't the type of person who was very sociable. And he was stubborn. Not only that, but he was a little afraid of Natalia's persistence and annoyed at her constant attempts to set him up on dates.  
  
"Come on." He said. "I want to look at the sunspire."  
  
In the middle of the hallway, a sort of mini-sunspire sat. Several of these where scatted throughout the Bell Tower, providing it with the same shield as their larger counterparts around the city. Moving toward it, they headed for it's base.  
  
The base of the sunspire was covered with large, black scales and smaller, ornate bronze scales. The black scales where generating 3-d interactive screens; sophisticated holograms that could be manipulated by touch, in front of the people who where gathered there. As he drew closer, a similar screen materialized in front of him. Pushing a button of the screen called news, several more screens materialized in front of him and his friends, replacing the previous screens.  
  
"So high that it touches the clouds. It's their mark. And nothing is left on the age this thing is on."  
  
He frowned, adjusting the individual volume on his screens. Always a day late and a dollar short, of course. What was this person talking about? He needed truth, hard facts, if he was to figure out this new threat behind the heartless. But there was nothing but silence when the truth was weighed in. they knew so little... and it disturbed him. It was not the destruction of this world that unsettled him; this world meant so little in the whole balance of things; it was this worrisome fact that the Nobody, whose job it was to know everything going on in the Present world, knew nothing of their adversary.  
  
Thanking the interviewee, the news anchor went on to the next story. "A mercenary turned in one of her own crew in place of a wanted prisoner today, running off with over 1.5 million in reward money. As for her identity, there was no firm determination. She is reported to be about 6 feet tall, 120 pounds, and armed." They had obtained images from a security tape which had been enhanced. Zooming in his screen, the Nobody took a good look at the picture of the single woman.  
  
"Coming?" Strife said forebodingly, appearing unnoticed behind the Dual Wielder. "They may already be here." Turning, Strife teleported away silently, still unnoticed by the other Nobody and the crowd.  
...

Leon strode forward, headed for the kitchen. He was hungry. Maybe Riona or Aeris had already cooked some scrabbled eggs and bacon. Hopefully Yuffie wasn't there, eating cereal or pancakes with extra syrup or something else drowned in sugar that would make her even _more_ hyper than usual, if that where possible. Relaxing, he tried to get the senatorial debate out of his head. Out there, on the far reaches of the system, _something_ was definitely going on. But for now, here, everything was as it should be. He opened the door and stopped. He had been wrong; everything was not as it should have been.  
...

Grabbing Kairi by her shirt, the cloaked man lifted her up as if she were as light as a feather. Holding one of the spikes from his weapons to her throat, he spoke.  
  
"Now, Where's Sora?"  
  
Kairi looked at him, fear in her eyes. However this man was, he didn't want to know where Sora was to deliver him a package. No, he looked like he wanted to kill Sora; or at the very least, maim. Squirming as if uncomfortable, she wormed one of her knives she kept up her sleeve into her hand.  
  
"I...I can't let you see Sora!"  
  
"Ah, so he's here, then." Pulling her closer, he whispered so only he and she could hear. "I wonder how fast he'd come running if he found out I was hurting..."  
  
With an inhuman shriek of pain, he dropped Kairi, clutching the hilt of the knife that was buried deep in his chest. Wasting no time, Kairi grabbed Tifa and ran, going for the harbor.  
  
Running headlong to the boat, they only got halfway down the path when they where both surrounded by a ring of fire, cutting them off. There was a flash a dark fire, and the red-haired man appeared again. He had pulled the knife out of his chest, and now had out both of his spiked wheels, twirling them, oblivious to the gaping hole in his chest where his heart should have been. Through the cut, she could see some kind of red crystal that looked as if it filled his entire body. His face was contorted with rage.  
  
"ENOUGH. I don't care if you know where Sora is, and long as I KILL YOU!!!"  
  
He flung his weapons at them. Tifa ducked to avoid it; Kairi swung her quarterstaff around, deflecting the weapon back at the cloaked man. He caught it, another spell already ready in his other hand. "Lava Ax!" a huge ax swooshed past Kairi's head, burning her skin and hair. The wheel he had thrown at Tifa came back; she threw herself out of the way, but not fast enough; it cut her on the shoulder, blood seeping out from between her fingers, slicing through her collarbone. Closing the gap between them, Kairi ran at the unknown. His attacks, because they were mostly magic, were distance based, not designed for combat in close quarters. Kairi held her quarterstaff low near hear knees, looking as if she would try to sweep his feet out from under him. He crouched down low, wheels at his knees, ready to block. But instead of sweeping his feet out from under him, she brought her staff up, hitting him hard enough under the chin he staggered backwards. She began to hit him on his knees, stomach, arms, over the head; anywhere she could get to before he recovered and stopped her, making sure he had no room to use his spiked wheels. Tifa slipped behind him.  
  
"Aero!" the redhead roared, the force of the protective spell blasting Kairi and Tifa back several steps. Reaching out, he grabbed the end of Kairi's quarterstaff and tried to yank it from her hands. In the few second that she had, Tifa cast cure on herself, feeling the familiar magic seep into her body and heal her wound. Healed, she positioned herself behind the unknown, hands at the ready.  
  
As Aero began to phase out, the unknown found himself attacked on both sides; Kairi with the quarterstaff in the front, and Tifa tenderizing his back and head with her fists behind him. Using his spiked wheels, he slashed at Tifa's head and neck and used them to block Kairi's quarterstaff.  
  
Even though the unknown was the stronger and more skilled of the three, the relentless assault of 2 people was beginning to wear him out. As he fought, his wound began to bleed. His etheric body, manifested inside him, began to flicker.  
  
Tifa was beginning to get tired, too. Dodging another slash at her neck and stomach by the unknown, she was almost too slow. A shallow cut appeared on her stomach and one of the blades nicked her throat. Sensing she was weak, he focused his attention on her, driving her back into the flame wall, away from Kairi. Slashing at her again, she raised her arms to deflect the blows, the spikes cutting two slashes in her arms. Sensing an opening, he cast Firaga, a ball of fire hitting Tifa and knocking her unconscious.  
  
Finished with Tifa, he turned to Kairi. Standing and panting heavily, she rushed over to Tifa and the unknown. But the unknown disappeared. Kairi stopped, turning slowly in a circle, quarterstaff at the ready. Suddenly, the unknown reappeared behind her, and stabbed her in the side with the spike of one of his wheels.  
  
The unknown kneeled down on the ground, beside Kairi. She was clutching her side and wheezing; he had probably punctured a lung. Such a wound would kill her in about five minutes; blood would seep into the lung, drowning her. But for the cloaked man, that death would not be fast enough. He held one of the blades over her head, ready to plunge it into her temple. Suddenly, he felt another presence teleport inside the ring of fire.  
  
"Stop, Axel." The newcomer said, eyes glowing.  
...

_Unlike most of the inhabitants of Yul, Ellos did not live off of the main cavern in one of the rooms. She lived at the very bottom of the cavern, among the crosswalks and stairs that threaded around the arms of the machine. Most of the wiser, older inhabitants lived in the bottom of the Shelter, in rooms nestled close to the machine, their provider. Shure, the air was fresher on top, but more heartless appeared in the upper levels. And their was no sky, no stars to look upon on top. The inhabitants of Yul hoped that their where no stars, no other ages as twisted and tortured as their own.  
  
Down bellow, you were left alone. No heartless, no mindless came down in these depths, where darkness crawled as if it were a living thing, far away from Yul's fiery sun. There was more time down here to lose yourself. More time to forget. Clambering down the pipes, Ellos climbed ever downwards, headed for the water collection vats. In natural wide, shallow pools ringed with sulfur, Ellos rolled up her pants legs plunged her feet into the water, feeling the minerals in it seep into her bones and warm her weak, achy joints. The Roots and other older members of the Shelter came down here to soak in the pools as well; the minerals where believed to be good for arthritis, rheumatism, and a thousand other ills of the bones and the joints.  
  
Ellos sighed in contentment. Root May was right; the feeling of bathing, just wrapped in warm, hot water, feeling all the worries and cares just wash off your skin along with the dirt, you could almost imagine it washing away all the darkness and evil from you heart as well. Sulfur from the water stung at cuts and scrapes and bruises from her twice daily missions to the surface; departing kisses from the Devil's own Hell's Angels.  
  
Pulling up the back of her shirt and tucking it in her collar, she tensed and then relaxed her muscles, a wing springing forth from her left shoulder.  
  
She normally kept it inside of her, so that it's color wouldn't fade, but she usually let it out to stretch it every couple of days; it got itchy if she left it inside her too long.  
  
In unison, a hand slid down her wing to her shoulder, making her shudder as a well-known voice spoke in her ear. "Is this part of the reason you won't talk to me about the High Road?"  
  
Slightly annoyed, she turned to the speaker. Few people could claim to have snuck up on Ellos; actually, only one could claim to have done such a feat. If not for the calming effect of the water on her, she would have been madder; and if it had been anyone else who had touched her, she probably would have already removed their hand from their arm.  
  
"What are you doing here?" She asked, slightly annoyed at his arrogant attitude as he slowly sat down next to her, taking his time before answering. "Trying to get some answers, that all. You still haven't told me about how this works." He said, pointing at the octopus-like machine on top of them.  
  
"Do you know about E = MC squared? Basically it says that energy and matter the same thing; they can be converted from one to the other. We call this substance which is both energy and matter aether. Aether in a pure form, where it is both energy and matter simultaneously, is rare. The only three examples we know of is gummi blocks, quanta 5, and shadowflesh.  
  
Once a heart reaches a certain size, the outer layer's energy starts to slow down, becoming gummi aether. Depending on the types and amounts of energy, different types of gummi aether develop. If the aether is pumped ever farther away from the original heart, it turns completely into matter, specifically elements that we use to synthesize simple compounds we can't get from the surface; water, hydrogen fuel to power machines, oxygen gas and other gases to create an atmosphere, even a new element that absorbs heat energy while it radioactively decays that we use to cool down the cavern. different gummi aethers yield different elements. We call the whole process synthesizing."  
  
Looking up at the pipes with a newfound wonder, Strife gazed at them as if he had never had candy in his life and his mom had just taken him into a candy store. Ellos couldn't help but smile, something she did so infrequently she could count the times on her two hands; half of them where caused by Strife, even though he had only come into her life 2 months ago. That was one of the things she liked and admired about him; his curiosity and desire to explore. It seemed almost boundless; and when he was curious, it was the only time he dropped that slightly arrogant front of his.  
  
"And you have all this data stored somewhere? On synthesizing?"  
  
Ellos smiled, reacheding into her pocket and bringing out a battered handheld organizer. It had no keyboard, only a stylus for writing directly on the screen. "All my research is in here; how to make gummi blocks, synthesize hearts, elements, what you need, the properties of gummi blocks, everything. In my own personal journal."  
  
"Who helped you do all this? You couldn't have done it all on your own."  
  
"I, the Roots and a newcomer did it. It was the newcomer's idea."  
  
"Who was this newcomer? Was his name King Mickey? Did he look like a giant mouse?"  
  
Ellos cocked her head to the side, not knowing what a mouse looked like. "His name was King Mickey. Really short guy. Big, round ears."  
  
"Where did he go afterwards?"  
  
"He had a big, key-shaped sword. He said it was called a keyblade and that it could get him out of Kingdom Heart by going through another door, not the one that lead to the present world. One that lead to a world called the In-Between place.  
  
Strife stopped his examination of the machine above him. "Did he leave any notes about the keyblades? Their powers, how they where made?  
  
Ellos paused, thinking. "He left a lot of notes... we could search through them, if you want..."  
  
Ellos stopped, realizing he wasn't listening. He was concocting some daring plan. Hopefully this one would not get them killed. "Listen. Tomorrow we're going to look through those notes. Then were going to make ourselves a keyblade; if anyone knows how to do it, King Mickey does. Where also going to find the door King Mickey used to escape Kingdom Hearts; it must be easier to get through, because otherwise he would have just used the door to the present world."  
  
Ellos nodded. This was a good plan; this way, they would get out of Kingdom Hearts, and Ellos would not have to tell Strife the secret that King Mickey had sworn her to silence.  
  
Sighing, she saw Strife begin climbing the stairs, obviously going to tackle those notes. Bathtime was over. Retracting her wing, she got up, stopping to pick up one of the feathers that had come lose. It was bright yellow at the top, with deep purples and blacks at the bottom; the same as her wing.  
_ ...

Author's notes

1.) the system of government on Twilight Town is based on the Ancient roman system. here is some info on the people mentioned in the first scene  
  
2 consuls—chief magistrates who convened and presided over the Senate and assemblies, initiated and administered legislation, served as generals in military campaigns, and represented Rome in foreign affairs. When their term of office was completed, consuls usually governed a province as proconsul.  
  
8 praetors—served primarily as judges in law courts, but could convene the Senate and assemblies; they assumed administrative duties of consuls when these were absent from Rome.

2 censors—elected every 5 years for terms of 1½ years; revised lists of senators and equestrians; conducted census of citizens and property assessments for tax purposes; granted state contracts.

4 aediles—supervised public places, public games, and the grain supply in the city of Rome; 2 were required to be plebeians, and the other two (who had more status) could come from either order; the latter 2 were called curule aediles.

20 quaestors—administered finances of state treasury and served in various capacities in the provinces; when elected quaestor, a man automatically became eligible for membership in the Senate, though censors had to appoint him to fill a vacancy

2.) Twilight Town still has an intact world wall. To allow intra-space travel, holes, or shield portals, have been cut into it.

3.) Widow's Walk- A railed, rooftop platform typically on a coastal house, originally designed to observe vessels at sea

4.) Instead of using spheres, I used platonic solids, or regular geometric solids, to spice things up. Unfortunately, I forgot that there was only 5.

5.) Quanta- yes, quanta is actually a real thing; quantum physics gets it's name from quanta. Quanta is packets of light which are simultaneously energy and matter. In my story, it is also the mindless equivalent of shadowflesh.  
...

Adalai- It's done! Wootage! _does happy dance_

Dante- you still gotta pay for that mirror.  
  
Adalai- never mind the mirror. We can use the stainless steel fridge.  
  
Dante- I don't think that will work...  
  
Adalai- Okay, I am inside your mind...  
  
Mirror- food, food, food, food, food, food...  
  
Adalai- is that all you can think about? Food?  
  
Dante- yeah, because I'm out of it. you need to fill the food bowl.  
  
Adalai- but I just filled it last month! Fine, fine... _grumbles and fills food bowl_  
  
Dante- ok, while Adalai is filling the food bowl, she cannot read the reader's minds. So you will have to review. A lot. The more you review, the faster she fills the food bowl, and that makes everyone happy.

...

**One has _only_ a life of one's own.**

** _- Orleanna, The Posionwood Bible_**

****


	6. Chpt 6: Unbreakable

Lightbringer; Chpt. 6- Unbreakable  
  
Adalai- Alright Stinky, Disclaimer!  
  
Stinky, Muse of Comedy- Adalai does not own Kingdom Hearts, it's characters, worlds, ect. Those belong to Square and Disney. Adalai does not own sunstones either; those belong to Garth Nix. Adalai does not own Sephiroth or anything from Final Fantasy. However, Adalai ownz this fic, Asher, Ellos, Strife, Yul, Alma, Danya, Hector, Root May, Root Kay, Scion,The End, the plotline, any new concepts or ideas, and fills my food bowl and cleans my litter box, and that's what matters!  
  
Authors notes at bottom.  
...

That he recognized the sound did not trouble him, but the fact that he recognized the voice that began to speak over the steady scrape of stone over steel.  
  
"We have always had, since the first hearts were created, a peaceful understanding between those with hearts and those who do not have hearts, who live beyond our ages. We do not stray into Kingdom Hearts, their refuge; they do not come into our world. I have always seen them as protectors of mankind, in their own, silent way; they have allowed us to live here, in their shadow, in this safe haven beneath their wings. It is...a truce. Or perhaps a stalemate."  
  
Leon carefully walked into the room and sat at the table, across from the voice. If the owner of that voice had come to kill him, he would already by dead. He could only hope that she was just not taking her time.  
  
"I could admire them. There is much to be learned from those without hearts. They are fearless in a way I can never know. Between everything we love and everything we fear is a line we shall not cross. For there wait the heartless, reflections of a darker animal of ourselves. The nothing from which all hearts are born."  
  
There were any number of a variety of hair products and irons to style the hair, but perhaps out of a desire of independence or out of tradition, the tall woman had washed and towel dried her hair the night before. Sleeping with it wet, it had dried wavy, rather than her usual straight style. Concentrating on sharpening her weapon, for all he knew she could almost not have seen him come in. But Leon knew that there was no almost about it.  
  
"Did we make the right decision? To come here? To let them fester behind the door? Whether we made the right decision of not, I fear our days of peace are over."  
  
Stopping her sharpening, the woman got up to check on something she was cooling. She drew a hard-boiled egg from a pot and two pieces of toast. As she put them on the plate and made her way back to the table, she spoke.  
  
"These heartless we now see are not the heartless created by Ansem. They were aberrations, mistakes, not made by the source of the heartless and not representative of their will but of a human will. These are different. These heartless come from behind the door, created by the source of heartless; their false hunger for hearts has long since been forgotten. They and their children seek but one goal; one which cannot be fathomed by humans or anything that has a heart. For as the heart has reasons for which reason knows nothing, so too do the heartless have reasons for which reason knows nothing. They seek hearts only to provide the soldiers for their cause. These heartless that our now here serve as a warning for us; they have come, for reasons unknown, and no human heart, keyblade or otherwise, will stand in their way."  
  
Now seated, she began eat her meal, dipping pieces of toast into the egg yolk. Leon had never understood why she liked toast and 1-minuite 1 eggs so much; they where actually quite tasteless. He figured it had to be a synaesthesic thing; he remembered all too well the time she had told Riona her soup tasted spherical and blue. Without thinking, he looked upstairs.  
  
"She's upstairs in the shower." Ellos spoke, already knowing who he was thinking about.  
  
"Where did you go?"  
  
"Someplace with lots of forests. Trees. With oceans, lakes; lots of water. No real name; too thick of forests to settle on. And too dangerous. In the forest, you can get away from all the...temptation. All the extra light. Just hoping to live in the shadow of nowhere."  
  
Weapon in hand, the woman got up, and slowly began to circle Leon. She had gotten a medium bronze tan, and was wearing baggy light brown cargo pants tied up halfway up the shin, a beige ribbed, sleeveless tank top, hobnailed 2 lace-up military boots, and a dark brown leather jacket that reached to her ankles, with long, scalelike peaces of dull metal clustered on the upper back and shoulders. She had a chain around her neck tucked under her shirt. She also had on black gloves, which reached up to her elbows, the palms and back of her hand covered by some kind of metal that hugged the skin and moved as if made of liquid. She was no longer wearing her blindfold; she had on a sunglass/goggle hybrid of her own design, made of mirrored silver metal, the lenses made of a liquid containing nanomachines, stretched taught over the frames like bubble solution on a bubble wand. Changing colors and properties in different lights, the lenses were now an opaque, mirrored gold.  
  
"But then I find myself in a mercenary ship. With a 1.5 million price tag on my head. Only one person with the means and motive to put such a tag on me. Was I wrong to trust that you would leave me alone? Why?"  
  
Leon worded his reply carefully. In the presence of this woman, there was just no predicting what she would do or what would set off her temper. "It's complicated. There are many reasons..."  
  
Suddenly, the woman squeezed the palm of her glove, a large blade coming out from a sheath sown into the cloth, attached to the glove. She held it to Leon's neck. "Tell me." She spoke, voice so soft it was almost a whisper. "Why you brought me here."  
  
"To give us a fighting chance against the heartless."  
  
The woman's goggled gaze shifted, but her blade on Leon's throat did not. A brown haired woman in blue was standing at the door to the kitchen.  
  
Looking at the visitor, she could see worry in Riona's eyes.  
  
"Ellos." She was not afraid. Her eyes suggested disbelief and worry, not fear.  
  
For reasons know only to her, Ellos removed the blade from Leon's throat. Riona visibly relaxed, but she was still anxious and worried. She looked as if she wanted to rush over to Leon and pull him out of danger.  
  
Ellos looked at Riona. Advancing at Riona, Ellos examined the older woman. Riona felt uncomfortable under that stare; it hinted at unhuman ways of seeing, at experience and knowledge learned too soon. It made her feel as if her clothes and skin where stripped from her without knowing why.  
  
From behind Riona, another girl peeped around her at Ellos. She had shoulder-length brown hair and eyes, and was wearing a yellow and orange outfit. "You're Ellos?"  
  
Ellos turned around to the girl. "Yes"  
  
"Did you really live in Kingdom Hearts? With the Heartless and Mindless?"  
  
Ellos turned sharply to look at Leon. _She knows about that?  
_  
Leon shrugged. "You know how it is with bedtime stories. Those kids want to know ever thing about us and anyone we know."  
  
Seemingly unnoticed by Ellos, Riona shepherded Natalia and herself out the room, quietly closing the door.  
  
Now that the two were outside, Ellos sat down and turned to Leon. Sighing, she buried her face in her hands, her fingers running through her hair.  
  
"Who do I have to kill so the world will leave me alone? What do I have to do so _you'll_ leave me alone?"  
...

Business in the heartless ship was the usual; that is, messy, violent, loud, crude, bloody, and all around generally unpleasant. Today was no different. 7 shells and a Nobody where transporting a prisoner to the heartless kennel; the heartless ship had no prison or cells to hold prisoners. The heartless didn't take prisoners.  
  
But Nobody did. This distinction did not matter to the shells; they had only a little bit more intelligence than the heartless, but they did as the Nobody told them. The strong resemblance between Nobody and captive went unremarked but not unnoticed among the shells; it wasn't their business, anyway, and the red-haired Nobody was well-known for his temper.  
  
Finally reaching their destination, they opened the kennel where the prisoner would be housed. The heartless kennel was a solid wall of steel cages packed on top of each other, each of which housed a new breed of predator mindless. They looked like combinations between solider mindless and wolves; they had the head and hands of a mindless, and from the neck down looked like they were covered in a white bodysuit similar to that of the solider mindless, but with thousands of tiny, sharp spikes. They wore armor on the head, shoulders, back, and legs that seemed to be made of white bone. The headpiece contained the mindless crest; the weeping face.  
  
Sensing a newcomer to their domain, the mindless wolves howled and struggled against the bars of their cage, hungry for the heart so near to them, and yet so far.  
  
Opening the door of the metal cage the prisoner was in, they waited for the girl to come out. This was the most dangerous part of the transfer. Each of them drew a sword; it was black shadowflesh, with the heartless insignia emblazoned on the blade and hilt. These were keyblades made from heartless, called heartless blades. If you were stabbed through the chest with one of these, you instantly became a heartless yourself. These blades were made from shadow heartless, and where the least powerful, but they where still sharper and much more deadly than their metal counterparts.  
  
But the prisoner did not move. Puzzled at her hesitation, they poked at the cage, trying to get her to move. Grabbing the end of one of the swords, she turned and stabbed it's owner in the hand. The shell's cries of pain mixed with the inhuman calls of hunger from the surrounding mindless. Shooting forward, she thrust herself into the cage, the door closing behind her.  
  
Their mission now fulfilled, the 7 mindless wandered off, lost in their blind wanderings until called by another Nobody to fulfill another task. Satisfied with the result, Axel left, joining another figure, wrapped in a hooded cloak which seemed to be made of many strips of black cloth sown together and peppered with tiny, silver chains.  
  
Inside their cages, the mindless howled and flung themselves at Kairi's cage. Sitting on the floor of the kennel, as hard and unyielding as the shadowflesh of the ship, she spoke;  
  
Can we please SHUT UP THE NOISE!!!!!!!!  
  
Her request was fulfilled; for two seconds. Then the howling resumed. Trying to ignore the fear and the heartless surrounding her, she buried her head in her knees and rocked back and forth, whispering "It's okay...It's okay...It's okay..."  
...

"You won't find them. Even if you looked."  
  
"Why should I find them when they are right here? You've already called them down here, I expect."  
  
"It's not that easy, Ellos. They're _Nobody_."  
  
Any shadow of candor vanished from Ellos' face. "Don't talk about _easy_ with me, Leon. My whole life is surviving what isn't _easy_. Now, If there's any kind of communications on this overlit, blinding ball of reanimated dirt, they'll be here."  
  
Leon looked at Ellos. He had managed to convince her to leave the kitchen and go out on a wide balcony that had been converted into a sort of sitting room.  
  
Sitting in chairs opposite of each other, Leon and Ellos regarded each other with a mixture of reserve and cautiousness. Finally, Leon broke the silence.  
  
"Ellos, you lived in Kingdom Hearts. Tell me...did you ever come across someone called Riku?"  
  
Ellos frowned, thinking. "Nope. Why do you ask?"  
  
"No reason. Anyway, I don't suppose you know this guy, but we need you to find someone."  
  
"Who? Any leads?"  
  
"We don't want you to go out and search for him. Trust me, we've tried that. You remember how you told me that if one heart is entangled to another, and if you have one of the entangled hearts, you can find where the second heart is, right?"  
  
"Yes. So you want me to find this Sora person using that? Who is this guy? Why do you want him so bad? And more importantly, where did you get a heart that's entangled with his?"  
  
Leon blinked, surprised. How did she know about Sora? Or more importantly, how did she know about Sora but not about him being the key bearer?  
  
"Well, Sora has this key that can close Kingdom Hearts. If we can close Kingdom Hearts, and these heartless are from Kingdom Hearts like you say, the heartless will disappear, and the worlds will return to normal."  
  
"No they won't."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"That only works with the artificial heartless. Do you remember the time your worlds were destroyed? The Final Fantasy Worlds? They didn't return; they're still missing. And..."  
  
_And the Endless Worlds._ Ellos stopped. She didn't want to talk about that dream she had last night. "and those other worlds? The real heartless may not just disappear when the door is locked."  
  
Ellos paused, remembering something. "Only this 'key' can unlock the door to Kingdom Hearts, right?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"So how did the Door to Kingdom Hearts get unlocked after Sora locked it?"  
  
Leon paused. That was actually a good question. To unlock the door, unlike locking it, only the kingdom key, instead of both the Golden Kingdom Key and the Kingdom Key needed to be present. But the keyblade master would also have to be present in Kingdom Hearts; Sora was only a keyblade wielder, and not in Kingdom Hearts.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
Leon got up, looking at the sky. Waiting for someone. In the last 30 minutes, Leon had managed an understanding, almost a familiarity between himself and the Forgotten; both had survived went all else around them had perished, both hearts of great strength, lights when all around them was darkness, when they were darkness themselves. The greater the shadow, the stronger the light. It was all they had in common, and a tenuous link, to be sure, but it would have to do. He could only hope it was enough.  
  
The night sky. It was a home of something dreadful, something that smothered stars, that could possibly be hiding something behind it's perpetual sunset. Perhaps the end of everything he knew, that he worked so hard to build. His friends. His home. His fiancé. Much depended on the woman seated across from him. Knowing what little anyone could know about such an individual, it seemed a last effort to trust so much hope on one who nobody could know what that person would do.  
  
"What exactly is happening, anyway?"  
  
Leon looked at Ellos. "You've been kind of out of touch lately, haven't you?"  
  
Ellos shrugged. "Ever found the time. Or the means."  
  
Leon opened his mouth to speak, but another voice answered.  
  
"The Artisan age is gone. The 13 outermost worlds of the Twilight system have gone missing. Completely gone, no survivors. Not even Nobody can step foot there."  
  
Ellos leaped out of her chair, and whirled around, pocketknife in hand, looking for the speaker. A boy with blue eyes and messy blonde hair in black and white clothes was standing in the room. Even though he looked normal enough, she could tell he was a Nobody.  
  
Leon spoke.  
  
"The one you want is now here. Ellos, meet Scion."  
  
Ellos looked carefully at his face. She could read people better than any machine. She had never seen this person before; was this some kind of test? She knew that there had to be another Nobody, or someone who knew her. Was this a test? Was she being played?  
  
In turn, Scion examined her. His countenance was as enigmatic as her's. Ellos met his gaze with her goggled one. Had this Scion been brought here to examine her? Was this the man she sought, someone from long ago she had forgotten?  
  
Suddenly, Ellos whirled, her knife at the throat of the second Nobody. He was a powerful one; he had made no sound when he teleported behind her, only a disturbance in color that triggered warning bells, literally, in her head.  
  
"And who is this?" Ellos said, turning to the second visitor. The Nobody was shrouded in the black raincoat they all wore, and shadows seemed to crawl around him, signs of an etheric body; the NEO had taken on the properties of darkness. The Nobody did not respond; she hadn't expected him to, either.  
  
"I you kill him, then you'll never know why we brought you here." Scion spoke.  
  
"I already know. You want me to find this Sora character."  
  
"Yes, but there are other people who could just as easily track him down, using heart entanglement. There is much more at stake than such trivialities as bounties and revenge."  
  
"Then start explaining. I'm tired of being kept in the dark."  
  
The second Nobody smiled at the irony of the statement, which no-one else seemed to catch. Concentrating, he disappeared, seeming to melt into the shadows along the wall. Ellos moved her knife, but too late.  
  
The second Nobody spoke, from nowhere and everywhere at once. "Balance is everything to the Nobody. Earth to air, fire to water, light to darkness, matter to energy. The worlds cannot survive in chaos. They must have a still, a balance. But there is a problem with balance."  
  
Ellos was one of those rare people who where smart enough to fathom how much they did not know the extent of their ignorance and humble enough to recognize it. "Maybe you need to pretend that you're talking to someone whose main education was how to survive in the worst possible conditions. Where anything 'civilized' or 'moral' or dealing with philosophy was pretty much left out. Now don't pretend. I understand what you're saying, but not where you're going with it."  
  
"With balance..." Ellos whirled around, trying to discern a pattern in the Nobody's movements, something she could use to see him or predict where he would move next. stagnation. Things stay the same, not growing, not getting better. Sometimes change is necessary for growth, for improvement. Not all balances are good. Some 'controlled' chaos is necessary."  
  
"About 30 years ago, an invasion of Heartless and Mindless swept across the outskirts of Twilight System. They destroyed the Final Fantasy Worlds, but that did not seem to be their target. Their target was a small, middle- sized system that bordered the Final Fantasy Worlds. The inhabitants of these worlds were destroyed. Feared by the heartless, for whatever reasons."  
  
"The Endless." Ellos spoke. The voice of the second Nobody seemed familiar. It seemed she had been drawn to the Bell Tower of her own will; this person seemed to know her, and know her well. But not well enough. Out of touch, and for once, glad of it, there was obviously some kind of ongoing political conflict in the system. These Nobody wanted to use her as some kind of hero to consolidate their power in the region. Ellos chuckled grimly. Amazing how this person could know so much and yet so little about her. She was many things, but hero was not one of them. So be it for her to pop their misguided delusions of her.  
  
She didn't know how wrong she was.  
  
More confident now, the Nobody emerged form the shadows, still moving around, dissolving a reappearing in a cloud of black mist, teleporting around the room. But wherever he appeared, it was well out of the way of Ellos' knife.  
  
Scion spoke again. "What do you know about your childhood, Ellos? Before you came to Kingdom Hearts? Your family? Your parents? Your ancestry? Your upbringing?  
  
Stopping his commentary short, the second Nobody began speaking again. Any attempt to reason, to relate to this woman would be a waste of time. "Do you remember your home age? It's appearance, location? It's people; your people? Why your family abandoned you in Kingdom Hearts? What happened to it?"  
  
"have you met any others?" Scion said with urgency.  
  
"Others like yourself? Cousins, siblings?" the second Nobody said.  
  
These questions where meaningless to Ellos. He past was a traumatic one; she stayed sane by staying in the present, in the today. The past was dead, as her family and world and everything she had known was and as she would one day be. Her purpose in life was to keep that day as far away as possible, not wonder about things already dead. Every day she was alive was an accomplishment to her. She had no family, nor needed one; she did not want them and they obviously did not want her; why else would they abandon her to Kingdom Hearts? Why did it matter who they where? Or where she came from, for that matter? If she didn't care, why would it matter to anyone else? Yet the answers to these questions seemed important to the Nobody.  
  
_You want something from me, give me something first_. She did not give away anything if there was hope for something in return. Turning to the balcony, she fingered the charm on the chain around her neck, the sunstone in the middle flashing. "My people didn't even know what to do with _one_ of me. They threw me into Kingdom Hearts before I could walk. What makes you think there are others?"  
  
Turning to the Nobody, she spoke. "I'll work with you. But I have one condition."  
...

_Strife picked up a box of paperwork and carried it down the ramp, towards the bottom of the cavern. Reaching a room of the side halfway down, he set the box down with a smothered 'whump'. In the room there were also several more boxes, along with some equipment. Their 'headquarters'. Emerging from the room, he looked around, spotting Ellos.  
  
Ellos was on a cavern ledge just bellow him. She was being hassled by three men he had never seen before. One punched Ellos in the stomach, making her double over. The other kicked her legs out from under her, making her collapse on the ground, bent over. The other man kicked her viciously in the stomach and sides, the other two standing back. Through this, Ellos made no sound.  
  
What was Ellos doing? Strife wondered. Usually if anyone laid a hand on her like this, they would already be dead. Ellos had a 'thing' about people touching her. He waited, hiding behind a rock, slowly working the blade of a knife out of it's scabbard, carefully that no light reflected off the blade to alert the three men bellow of his presence.  
  
Finished kicking her, the man looked at his comrades. "What are you afraid of? What is she, a hundred and ten pounds? I thought you wanted a quick lay."  
  
Clutching her stomach, Ellos tried to stand up, but failed, dropping to the ground. She had been roughed up by the three a lot; her nose looked broken, and her entire body was covered in cuts and bruises. After the beating she had gotten, she would probably have a few broken ribs, too. She tried to stand up again, but the man who had spoken knocked her down again, kicking her in the face.  
  
"Let's go sweetheart. You know the drill."  
  
Finally letting a moan escape, Ellos tried to turn over, only to find her arms and legs held down by two of the men. She had her eyes shut, murmuring some kind of mantra under her breath, and had a defeated, reserved look on her face, as if she knew what terrible thing was about the happen to her and was resigned to it. That look gave Strife a weird, sinking feeling in his gut, the same feeling he got when something bad was about to happen.  
  
They where going to rape her.  
  
The man holding down her arms frowned. Something was hovering in the shadows above, just out of his blindfolded vision. Turning, he saw a boy there, about 15-16, arms crossed in front of him. Well, no matter if he lingered or stayed, he wasn't going to get a turn at the girl. If he was smart, he'd disappear, and maybe they'd leave him alone. Maybe.  
  
But instead of going, the boy came out of the shadows and jumped down on the ledge with them. He spoke. "You should go and leave us alone."  
  
The man sneered. He wasn't going to let this guy get the girl all to himself. The boy spoke again. "Take you business and get out."  
  
"Why? You gonna fry us, pretty boy?"  
  
The three looked at each other and sat up, surrounding Strife. Ellos just lay there; it hurt too much to move, yet. It even hurt to breathe, and she didn't want to face the business end of another steel-toed boot.  
  
The biggest of the three looked at Strife. "Is there a name for the this little delusion your currently in? Are you high or something? Are you going to kill us with your bare hands?"  
  
"With Sin Harvest, actually."  
  
The guy frowned, not sure he had heard correctly. The only person who could do Sin Harvest was Sephiroth. "Whazzat?"  
  
"I said, I'll kill you with Sin Harvest."  
  
Holding out his hand, a sphere of red energy formed. Carefully, he placed it just soooo...on the rock next to him. No craftsman or artist could have been more precise. Slowly at first, but gaining speed, bouncing higher and higher as it slowly got bigger and bigger.  
  
Unnerved, the three men's eyes looked from the boy to the spell, spell to boy. One part of his mind told him he was missing something important. The other told him that it didn't matter; there was no way in all the ten thousand hells this boy could cast Sin Harvest. The latter won out. It wasn't a matter of strength or magic affinity, but of ability. The ability to cast sin harvest was passed down genetically; only Sephiroth or anyone related to him by blood could do it. And you had to have a certain degree of dark powers and magic ability to cast it.  
  
He started toward the white-haired boy. White hair...Sephiroth had white hair...  
  
"Oh shit, he isn't bluffing!"  
  
Running past his two comrades, he sprinted away as if the devil himself was on his heels. The other two looked at Strife. Another ball of energy appeared in his hand, and he put it down on the floor in front of him. Just sooo.  
  
Making the same connection as their friend had, the two man looked at each other and ran, cursing, in the opposite direction.  
  
Strife looked at the three men, until they were out of sight. Exhausted, he released the two spells, the balls of energy dissipating into nothing. Ellos hauled herself up on a rock. Shoulders shaking, she made a gasping, wheezing sound. At first Strife thought she was coughing, but then realized she was...laughing?  
  
"Death by Sin Harvest. Why didn't I think of that? No everyone will think your Sephiroth in disguise or his long-lost son or something."  
  
Strife helped Ellos up from the rock, for once not hurting him for touching her. Ellos knew well the requirements to cast Sin Harvest. She didn't know how he had learned or met the requirements to cast it; truth be told, she didn't want to. Strife kept silent too; wondering how often these guys had done this to Ellos, and why she hadn't fought back.  
  
"They do this to a lot of girls. Usually if you keep quiet and don't respond, they just beat you and move on. Usually."  
  
"Did you ever fight back?"  
  
"Once." Ellos said. You know what that can do to you? When your 12? Doesn't matter that you passed out, just the idea...But Ellos shook such thoughts of self-pity from her brain.  
  
Strife nodded. "I guess we'll start tomorrow, then?", Trying to make a joke. But Ellos just ignored him.  
_ ...

Author's notes.

1.) 1-minuite eggs and toast is a very common European breakfast. You dip the toast in the egg yolk. I wanted to give Ellos somewhat of an unusual favorite breakfast.  
  
2.) hobnailed- to be studded with short nails with thick heads used to protect the soles of shoes or boots.  
...

Adalai- wootage, it's don-one!!!!!! _Does happy dance_ now time for our new slogan!  
  
Stinky- we have a slogan?  
  
Adalai; yes. Here it is. _in sing-song-y voice_ If you really like this story, please review! If you really like this story please review! If you really like this story would you please just try and show it, if you really like this story please reviewww...

_empty except for charon-of-the-depths. Crickets chirp_.  
  
Adalai- Damn you Crickets! DIE!!!!!!!!!!  
  
_Grabs Keyblade from Sora and Masume from Sephiroth and, with a red glint in her eye, charges after the crickets, going off the screen. Crashing noises ensue_.  
  
Sora- does she always do this?  
  
Stinky- nope, this is the first time, Soma  
  
Sora- Sora.  
  
_insert sound of a atomic bomb going off here_  
  
Sephiroth- _Whips out popcorn and watches Adalai run back on the screen from the opposite side she disappeared from, waving both swords around but still, somehow, not managing to hit the cricket fleeing in front of her. She disappears off the end of the screen and more noises of mass destruction ensue_.  
  
Stinky- Wheeelllppphh..., until we can get Ellos under control or until she finally manages to kill a cricket, you heard the girl, review!

...

_What can I do to wound you, you cold fish of a woman? You are ice, you are stone!_

- Ayesha, _The Deeds of the Disturber_


	7. Chpt 7: Not Alone

Lightbringer; Chpt. 6- Not Alone  
  
Adalai- Alright Stinky, Disclaimer!  
  
Stinky, Muse of Comedy- Adalai does not own Kingdom Hearts, it's characters, worlds, ect. Those belong to Square and Disney. However, Adalai ownz this fic, Asher, Ellos, Strife, Yul, Alma, Danya, Hector, Root May, Root Kay, Scion, The End, the plotline, any new concepts or ideas, and fills my food bowl and cleans my litter box, and that's what matters!  
  
Authors notes at bottom.  
...

"I want you to test me for Marfan's Syndrome."  
  
Cloud and Leon looked at her, puzzled. But for Aeris it all made sense. Ellos' height, the long arms and legs, the weak bones and joints, all of it. All were classic symptoms of Marfan's.  
  
Marfan's, or as it is sometimes called, supermodel syndrome, is a rare genetic disease that affects the bones, joints, and connective tissue. The body cannot make a substance called fibrin correctly, so connective tissue doesn't form right. It's weaker than normal. Marfan's is usually inherited from a parent, but it can be the result of a spontaneous mutation; the DNA isn't copied right during conception. It isn't as uncommon as you think; 30% of cases are spontaneous mutation.  
  
There are very little physical indicators of Marfan's; long limbs, fingers, and toes, including armspan exceeding height, tall, thin stature, narrow, sharp featured face, prominent stretch marks, Caved in or pushed out breastbone, eye problems, loose and injury-prone joints, brittle bones, double jointed-ness, and curved spine.  
  
On of the main problems that arise from Marfan's is Aortic dissection/aneurysm. This is where the Aorta ruptures, killing the victim instantly. This defect is present in half of all people with Marfan's, and unless treated with open heart surgery, the heart fails around 20 to 30. Other problems are other miscellaneous heart defects, Scoliosis 1, eye problems and blindness.  
  
Many people who have Marfan's live a normal lifespan; only if left untreated could it be deadly. Most people who die of marfan's are, of course, women. Doctors often brush off the vague and apparently unrelated symptoms, not knowing they are really warning signs of Marfan's, especially if related to heart rate.  
  
Ellos had bitter memories trying to get treatment for her Marfan's syndrome. All the various untrained doctors she had seen had told her that her achy joints, curved back, racing heart, and narrow mouth weren't a problem, because she "wasn't unattractive." She was hot Sex on a Stick, and her good looks and ability to get laid, the most important quality of women in the minds of these doctors, were intact; what the hell was she complaining about? She was also lucky in the minds of most women, whose biggest problem was trying to get into some hundred dollar pair of skimpy jeans. Never mind she could have dropped dead from an aneurism, are gone blind, or been confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, unable to fight against the heartless or escape Yul's eminent sunrise.  
  
To these shallow women that Ellos had the misfortune of meeting, whether at Yul or in the present world, her mild Marfan's syndrome was a blessing, not a curse. Ellos' cardiac problems, in there mind, weren't nearly as bad as not being able to fit into a pair of size 4 jeans. And at the same time, she was pitied smugly by these same women; sure, she might look hot, but she was still 'disabled'. It made them feel better, Ellos assumed, to think of her as disabled, as less than they where. Would they scoff the same way at a beautiful woman in a wheelchair, or a blind beautiful woman? Let them have their delusions, and leave her be. Ellos had never considered herself disabled. The disabled were the dead; those who where not fit enough, or adaptable enough to survive. She was alive, and she thrived; in her mind, she was one of the fit, not the disabled. Marfan's was just a part of who she was; she used her unique condition to her advantage when she could, and tried to make up for it's shortcomings when she couldn't. Just a collection of weaknesses and strengths that was part of who she was, and she was one of the fit. The Forgotten.  
...

Usually linear, now that Ellos was safe, her thoughts drifted, diverse. This was one of Ellos' abilities; to concentrate and hold many thoughts at the same time, figure out things through her strong imagination and creativity, adjust and thrive quickly in change. Some people with this kind of mind could be indecisive, autistic, unable to concentrate; but not Ellos. She knew when to take advantage of this ability and when to keep her thoughts linear, take control, force things on one path. In Ellos' mind, there were no weaknesses or strengths, only abilities. Abilities where only weaknesses when you didn't use them correctly.  
  
Even if she would not admit it to herself, she was afraid. Afraid they would laugh at her Marfan's syndrome, treat it frivolously and not as the life-threatening disease it really was, or refuse to test her for it, saying they didn't have enough reason to do so, only her word. She was not positive she had it; she had been told by Strife that she might have it, when she complained to him about her achy joints. But Aeris had been very professional; she said she would test her for the disease, described the procedure, even addressed her fears about her not taking it seriously. She even offered to treat her for any other ailments she might have; an offer which Ellos gratefully accepted. It felt weird, being treated so kindly, after having offered nothing in return. Almost in a motherly fashion.  
  
The test for Marfan's syndrome had two parts; physical and genetic. In the first part, Aeris simply checked if she had the normal symptoms of Marfan's, observing Ellos and asking her questions. Then, for the genetic part, Aeris drew some blood from her arm in a syringe. This blood would be put into a machine, which would separate the blood into it's components, _If you want to learn how DNA testing works, read on. I have shortened and simplified it as much as possible. If not, skip to the part that says," The DNA was run..._.extract DNA from the white blood cells using an enzyme solution that breaks down the proteins that bind the DNA to the nucleus. Then, the machine would separate the non-DNA material around it with organic chemicals, then purified, concentrated, and dried with an alcoholic solution. The dried DNA would then be mixed in a buffering agent and then a process called Polymerase Chain Reaction, of PCR, would be applied.  
  
PCR was a process that amplified Short Tandem Repeat Loci, or STR loci. Most DNA in all humans was 99% identical to that of all other life, and an individual's DNA was 99.9% identical to every other humans DNA. Some of this DNA was 'junk' DNA; it served no real purpose, it just 'existed'. STR loci, or genetic markers, are sections of DNA that differ from individual to individual, the DNA that really make you, you. Loci are the name of areas, or divisions on the chromosome. STR loci are sections of DNA that have short, simple patterns that repeat over and over. These short, simple patterns are called GATA repeats.  
  
PCR amplified the DNA creating copies of the sections of DNA at the very end of the STR loci DNA strands, called primers. This process is called denaturing and renaturing. The temperature is raised and lowered to specific temperatures in a machine called a Thermal Cycler. The process is catalyzed by an enzyme called DNA polymerase.  
  
The DNA is then separated into it's four bases by a process called Electrophoresis. The DNA is placed in a gel and electric current run through it, separating the four bases. A camera then records the image of the bases. The picture it captures looks very much like a piece of paper with alternating light and dark bands.  
  
The DNA was run through a huge database of other DNA, which would be used to find species, identify parents and family members, construct a picture and characteristics of the being the DNA belonged to, and to identify genetic diseases.  
  
Aeris looked at the screen of the computer. 4 options flashed.  
  
a.) Scan species b.) Scan characteristics and construct picture

c.) Scan for diseases and syndromes d.) Scan all  
  
Perhaps it was fate, which motivated her hand. Perhaps it was chance, a coincidence. Perhaps it was just idle curiosity. But the world will probably never know the reasons for what Aeris did next. We only know the results. Her mouse hovering over option C, she changed her mind, and pushed "Scan all."  
...

Cloud, Leon, Scion, Strife and Yuffie waited outside the hospital rooms, waiting of Aeris to finish examining Ellos and notify them of the results.  
  
Huffing, Aeris came out of the room, holding a huge stack of papers and folders under her arm. Oviously struggling with the load, Cloud came over to his wife and took the mountain of paperwork, setting it down on the coffee table with a loud bang.  
  
Silence filled the room. Finally Yuffie, never one to be quiet for long, spoke. "Well, how is she? Does she have this Marfan's Syndrome thingy or what? How is she?"  
  
Aeris brushed a piece of hair back from her face and sat down, opening the first folder. "She grew up in Kingdom Hearts, Yuf. She has so many things wrong with her I don't know where to begin."  
  
"I don't have the test results back on the Marfan's yet, so let's start with what we have. She has no less than 5 bullets lodged in various parts of her body, not counting fragments and other things I've found in there from the X-Rays." She began passing out the X-rays to the others around her. Leon held his up to the light to see it; It showed Ellos' leg, with a bullet and a nasty looking barbed metal fishhook that looked as if it had come from a whip. Aeris pointed at his X-ray. "I had to dig that bullet out because it was giving her lead poisoning. If you look at this paperwork, you can see all the various types of poisoning healed by cure spells; a variety of heavy metal poisons; arsenic, selenium, bromine and chlorine gas, so much lead poisoning she's practically a walking pencil, radiation poisoning from radioactive elements and other sources, causing small cancers in the body before they were healed by these cure spells. She also has some sort of organic substance in a cavity on the side of her head, probably from an earlier wound; I'm running it through the DNA machine, just in case."  
  
Then Aeris plucked from the paperwork a MRI scan showing Ellos' lungs. "She has an incredible amount of ash in her lungs. She also has traces of what used to be emphysema, bronchitis, asthma, lung cancer, and several serious bouts of pneumonia. It also looks as if she had Tuberculosis at some point. When she sticks out her tongue, I can see that practically _every_ organ of hers has been compromised in some way, by some disease or injury. Every bone of hers has been broken at _least_ once. She has so much volcanic glass in her back, it's more obsidian than flesh.  
  
Also, she shows mental and physical signs of rape. I don't think she can even bear children, even with the Marfan's, anymore. Her pelvis was fractured, and she contracted a particularly nasty strain of STD from whoever raped her; it was cured by a cure spell, but not before doing irreversible damage to her reproductive tract."  
  
"God" Cloud said, wincing at something her saw in one of the X-Rays. "How is she still moving?"  
  
'Knowing Ellos, Cure spells, shadowflesh, and force of will." Aeris said. "Her body is saturated by dark energy and a large part of her organs and muscles have been replaced by Shadowflesh. I think I know how it got there; minute bits of shadowflesh were absorbed through open cuts and wounds when she battled heartless and mindless, and after a lifetime of this, well, it added up. It's probably why she's so strong and resistant to pain. But what I'm worried about is the mental affects off all this. Ellos has a lot of stress-related mental defects from her life and from the rape; blackouts, insomnia, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, amnesia, trauma, unexplained aches and pains, mood swings, and depression."  
  
"And headaches."  
  
Everyone looked at Strife. "She complained about headaches to me. Does she have any of the problems associated with Marfan's?"  
  
Surprised at Strife's statement, Aeris flipped through the paperwork. "No. she has a curved back, but not scoliosis. She has no heart problems, eye problems, or any other defects associated with Marfan's, except for the achy joints. She may have a very, very mild case."  
  
"So what are you going to do about all this?" Leon asked.  
  
"Cast Full Cure, of course."  
  
Full Cure was a sorcery; It required a 2 sorceress to perform it. Sorceries where spells that required a sorceress or sorcerer to perform them because they were too powerful for ordinary magic users to cast and because they required 2 or more different types of magic. Sorcerers where magic users who where more powerful than ordinary magic users; they learned spells more quickly, could cast a wider range of spells for less MP, could create new spells, and, unlike mages, could learn and use multiple types of magic, instead of just one. Sorcerers where uncommon, but not rare. Although anyone could be a sorcerer, the trait tended to run in families. Riona was a sorceress, but that was only one...  
  
"Hold on a sec." Leon said. "Who's the other sorceress?"  
  
Aeris, who had gotten up to go back to Ellos, looked at him, surprised. "Ellos is. You didn't know she was a Sorceress?"  
...

"Tell me why I did this again?" Ellos asked.  
  
"To add 40 years onto you life?" Aeris answered. "Any side effects?"  
  
"It itches. Everywhere. Even inside me. It even itches mentally." Ellos said, absentmindedly scratching her arm.  
  
Aeris grinned. Itching was one of the side effects of Full Cure. Full Cure was a mixture of sunstone magic, charter magic, and Curaga. What it did was completely rebuild the body, cell by cell, using DNA as a guide. Thus, it completely healed the person it was used on, both in body and mind. Of course, this took a long time to do; several weeks, in fact. What Ellos needed right now was several days of bed rest and lots of food to provide energy for the spell to work.  
  
"You" Aeris said, "Need to sleep for several hours and eat everything I brought you." indicating the tray of food on the table by Ellos' bed.  
  
Ellos obeyed. It was useless to argue with Aeris when it came to medicine and nursing. She was usually easygoing and accommodating with anything else, but when it came to her duties as a nurse and doctor, she was firm and uncompromising. Probably because she was usually right and knew it.  
  
At the doorway, Aeris paused, looking at Ellos. "I know you have a hard time sleeping, so here's a tip; try doing something relaxing. Listen to some quiet music, draw, put your thoughts on paper." Then she left, closing the door behind her.  
  
Now that Aeris was out of the doorway, she smiled. She drew a battered hand- held organizer; her journal and research notes.  
  
Ellos had always kept her thoughts and feelings to herself, keeping up a stony mask in the presence of others. If you didn't let others read you, you kept the element of surprise on your side and your enemy couldn't gain as much advantage over you. Knowledge is power; one kind of power, at least. She only let her feelings show to her journal. And to Strife, a little bit.  
  
She brought up her research reports. Scrolling down and looking at them, she smirked, seeing where Yuffie had changed the names of the reports, like "the evil report" or "the non-existent report." She wondered, vaguely, if she would remember some of the memories lost in her blackouts and amnesia. She would deal with them when she came to them. They where just memories, right? Memories couldn't hurt you.  
  
Changing the display and choosing "create new journal entry for today", she paused, thinking of what to write. Once she had decided, she looked down at the screen. There was writing there, despite the fact that it was a new journal entry.  
  
"When full cure is cast, sometimes memories return that have been forgotten. But these are more than just memories. These dreams and apparitions; they are of things before I was born. How can I remember them, then?"  
  
_How did that get on there?  
  
_"They are words you haven't written yet."  
  
Ellos turned around, searching for the source of the voice. Something was wrong. _Someone was in the room._ She could not be mistaken on such things.  
  
Suddenly, she sensed a vibration, and disturbance in the air and the patterns of light that chimed melodiously in her mind. She turned towards the source.  
  
A normal human might have screamed, or started to babble nonsensically at the sight. Ellos merely sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the sight before her. Studying it, trying to see how it was possible. But it wasn't possible; there was no logical explanation for the specter.  
  
She was not alone.  
  
A woman stood in front of her, looking to be in her middle 20's. It was the same girl from her previous dream; gray skin with a touch of green, black hair, green eyes. She had a large, flower shaped organ above and behind her ear. Though slender, tall and unnaturally attractive, she moved with the same liquid, mercurial grace and inner toughness as Ellos. Ellos felt she should know the woman even though she had never seen her before. Both were somewhat similar in appearance, with an almost identical oval shape to their faces.  
  
"I thought your face would look more familiar. The chin and nose are different; they must have been broken and healed differently, when you were in Kingdom Hearts. Less heart-shaped, more finely and noticeably sculpted, the cheekbones more prominent; from your father. The face isn't the right color; the features lengthened and sharpened, the face too narrow and long; Marfan's syndrome. Your face is too lean, too; it doesn't have enough flesh to fill it out. No, there is almost no resemblance. But that is what Kingdom Hearts does to one, does it not? Makes you forget the past, physically and mentally. You eyes..."  
  
The woman paused, waiting for Ellos to take off her glasses. When she realized Ellos wasn't going to cooperate, she gave a snort of disapproval and continued.  
  
"Think of this as a dream, if you must. Until you know better."  
  
As she spoke, the room seemed to disappear around her. It was replaced by what looked like the inside of a giant tree; pieces of it swilled around each other in graceful, abstract forms, mimicking the simple, streamlined style Ellos had always admired without really knowing why. Onto the woven surface of the inside of the tree and the abstract forms clung thousands of different living things; plants, impossibly large or small, clinging to every available surface, moving and glowing and doing equally impossible things, and creatures that could only be described as the strangest hybrids of plants and animals ever conceived by nature, scuttling, swimming, moving around with every kind of possible locomotion available. The air seemed to be replaced with a sort of liquid, as light and fluid as air, which could change it's properties at a thought from the person it surrounded. Sunlight seemed to stream from everywhere and nowhere, coming, Ellos assumed, from the liquid around her, throwing dappled shadows across the room.  
  
"And once you know, you will never forget."  
...

_Ellos climbed the ruins, higher and higher until she was gasping for breath, not from physical exertion but from thin atmosphere. This new age Ellos and Strife had traveled to in their makeshift gummi ship was barren and rocky. Covered in deserts of superfine sand and flat stretches of windworn rock, this world had other ways of cleansing itself than it's sunrise. The destruction of the world's surface came from a different source.  
  
Ellos looked at the sky. It was a broiling mess of storm clouds. Usually these covered the entire surface and atmosphere of the planet, creating lethal lightning storms that struck over 10 lightning bolts per square foot and howling sandstorms that could strip the flesh from the bones of a human in 5 seconds flat. The obscuring cloud cover blocked out all types of light, making even Ellos' special eyes have trouble seeing. But from where she was, there was a temporary lull in the near-constant surface storm, allowing her to see and fulfill her task.  
  
A break in the clouds allowed her to see the age's three crescent moons, dark in an already grey sky, devoid of light. Strife had told her in the Present world, you could see all the other ages around you as tiny dots of light in the night sky. But this sky was as empty of stars as it was devoid of light; she was completely and utterly along. Eyes fixed on the sky, she climbed up the ruins, a small heart beating on the surface of the tower's façade, it's original builders long dead.  
  
What was at the top, she had only a vague idea. A NEO was dying on top; She needed the fragments of it's dead heart, if she wanted to make a keyblade. And she would probably only get this one chance; Nobody rarely went into Kingdom Hearts, much less died there. As she got closer to the top, she could feel the NEO; the wing inside her back twitched in response to its presence.  
  
Gasping, she finally reached the top. But what she found there was not what she expected.  
  
A predator heartless had beaten her to the NEO.  
  
She barely had time to haul herself up on top of the tower before it slammed into her, knocking her off the edge. For a scary few seconds Ellos fell down, arms and legs grasping at empty air. Then, her hand brushed against the cold stone of the tower. Prompted from instincts born out of 16 year-long struggle for survival, Ellos' fingers tightened on the projection and she brought her other hand and her legs up, wrapping them around the cold stone for a better grip.  
  
Looking around, she saw she was holding on to a stone spire about 100 meters down from the top of the tower. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that the predator heartless was slowly crawling down from the top of the building, heading right for Ellos.  
  
It had a long, snakelike body, covered with thousands of black needles, tipped with red. The front, however, was made of interlapping plates of armor, from which 3 pairs of arms, tipped with claws, sprouted. It had no neck; just a sort of rounded blob on which the face was. It had 3 yellow eyes, and a huge mouth, the lower jaw jutting out sharply, and filled with multiple rows of sharp shark's teeth.  
  
The thing bunched up, and shot all it's spines out of itself, in 360 different directions. Ellos swung around, gripping to the underside of the spike, using it a shield between her and the vicious spikes. Ellos grabbed her gun and shot at the things head three times, but to no effect. It wound itself around the stone spine, moving slowly and leisurely toward her.  
  
Ellos backed away from the creature, down the spike until she was perched on the very tip. If she could get on it's back, and stab at its neck through the armor, she might be able to kill it. The Spike shuddered up and down, barely able to hold her weight.  
  
The heartless slithered down the spike, wrapping it's tall around the base, mouth open wide to eat her whole.  
  
But the weight became too much for the spike to handle. With a resounding crack, it broke into pieces, throwing both girl and heartless into the oblivion.  
  
Ellos saw the tower spin away as she fell down, along with the pieces of stone from the spike. No longer able to see the heartless, she flung her arms outward, trying to catch another spike, projection, anything. But the wind had picked up and carried her father away and ever farther out, making it impossible for her to grab on to the side of the tower.  
  
As she fell, one though occupied her mind.  
  
Why did I ever try to make a keyblade?  
_ ...

Author's notes  
  
scoliosis- Abnormal lateral curvature of the spine.  
...

Adalai- wootage, it's don-one _does happy dance_ Isn't this so entertaining? Aren't you learning so much?  
  
Stinky- riiggghhhttttt...stuff they will probably never use.  
  
Adalai- on an interesting side note; the Marfan's isn't just thrown in for kicks; latter on, his turns out to be a big and necessary part of the plot. Most people assume that OCs are carbon copies of the author, but with Ellos this is not true; most of the inspiration for her came from my extended, rather than immediate, family. Marfan's runs in my family; appearance-wise, Ellos is partially based on a cousin of mine who has Marfan's and also used to be a model.  
  
Adalai- now, time for the new and improved theme song! If you really like this story, please review! If you really like this story please review! If you really like this story and you don't want a knife to your temple, if you really like this story, please review!  
  
Stinky- do what she says; I thinks she's serious. _edges away quietly_  
  
Adalai- Please review. They encourage me to write faster. They feed my addiction. By all means, feed my addiction.  
...

_No one can see anything on the other side of me; I walk, I crawl, losing everything on a downfall_.  
- Trust company, _Downfall_


	8. Chpt 8: The Best Intentions

Lightbringer; Chpt. 8- The Best Intentions  
  
Adalai- Alright Zena, Disclaimer!  
  
Zena, Muse of Tragedy- Adalai owns nothing. Ok!!!! NOTHING!!! Runs away bawling, asking 'god why me'.  
  
Adalai- Ok... that was somewhat unexpected...But I do own the plot and OCs. AHAH! points and laughs at lawyers, singing 'you can't sue me, you can't sue me...ect, ad verbatim.  
...

Kairi opened her eyes. _This can't be real...  
  
It must have been a dream. Whether it was a bad dream or a good dream she had not yet decided, but it certainly was a strange dream.  
  
She was standing inside what looked like a giant hollow tree, at least as wide as a city and god knows how tall. Pieces of the tree spiraled around in abstract forms. On the top of these relatively flat masses of earth lay, covered in the strangest plants, animals, and plant-animal hybrids she had ever seen. Instead of air, the surrounding area seemed to be filled with a sort of liquid that was as light as air. Light seemed to come from everywhere at once, probably from the surrounding liquid.  
  
It was on one of these that Kairi stood. It was covered with long, blue- green grass, small, glowing, scalloped-shell like lichens, and large, semi- transparent flowers, ranging in size from her curled fist to the size of her face, speckled with rainbow colors, and a thousand other tiny plants too strange to describe here, climbing and clinging to every available surface. Large flat pieces of living wood from the tree stuck up like strange monolith, curving around each other above, bellow, and to the side of her, strange plants and moving things, some of which she was not sure were animal, but parts of plants, covering them.  
  
Slowly, people began to appear. The first was Sora; He was taller and wearing black, blue and red clothes. Then...another Sora appeared?  
  
What the hell was going on?  
  
The second Sora was in black and white clothes, and had blond hair the same shade as Alma's instead of brown. A third Sora appeared, wrapped in a black raincoat. Half of his body was gone and had been replaced with shadowflesh; the right side of his body resembled that of a Neo heartless. Then, a fourth Sora appeared; or, at least, what Sora would have looked like if he was a girl, and had shoulder length blonde hair. This Sora held herself like Kairi did; back straight, hands clasped behind on the small of the back. A fifth Figure appeared, wrapped in a black cloak, the cowl thrown over his face, yellow heartless eyes peering out from the shadowed face.  
  
Who are these people?  
  
"We are but hollow men; ashes to ashes, shadows and dust. Measured, weighted, and divided."  
  
Kairi looked at the speaker. It was a girl, who seemed to be the opposite of everything she was, standing on her left. Fiery red hair to cool ashy brown, open blue eyes to hidden ones behind reflective lenses, delicately shaped features to longer, leaner, sharper, more scuplted ones, round face and wide jaw to lean, thin oval face and tapered jaw, short well-toned body to a slender, lean, tall one. She seemed somehow familiar.  
  
On the other side of her stood Riku, in the same black raincoat, with a blindfold over his eyes.  
  
The first Sora looked at her. The other Soras held out glowing crystals, seemingly made of light. The first Sora looked at her, with eyes that seemed to be empty and devoid. It made her shudder. For is there anything more scary than nothing where there is supposed to be something? He spoke, addressing the three.  
  
"If we take this to be the case, then there must be other 'you's other than yourself existing somewhere Find them for me."  
_ ...

It was night before Ellos woke up.  
  
Yawning and stretching, Ellos looked outside the window. Rain beat down mercilessly on the streets and canals of old Venice. Nighttime was Ellos' favorite time of day, when Heartless came out, people went in, and all the unnecessary light vanished, leaving Ellos alone and able to see without the constant glare of sunlight in her eyes. Sometimes, on pitch-dark nights, she even stalked the streets with her face bare, glad for a respite from her special glasses, clinging to her face like a symbiotic parasite.  
  
Ellos decided to take a walk. Plucking her glasses from the nightstand and her jacket from the peg, she put both items on a lifted up a window, ready to jump out.  
  
The sound of a door being opened caused her to turn around. The girl with the dark brown hair and orange and yellow clothing was there, peering behind the edge of the door at her. "Aeris says that you can come out now. Where are you going, in this rain?"  
  
She didn't usually like company, but it would be nice to talk to someone. "Going for a walk. Would you like to come?" she asked politely.  
  
"Shure. Let me get my umbrella. Oh and by the way, my names Natalia."  
...

10 minutes latter, Ellos and Natalia were walking side by side, under an umbrella, wandering through the streets of Old Venice, Natalia leading and pointing out places of interest.  
  
Charisma is one of the vaguest and undefined characteristics accorded to the human race. Ellos had always found that, when she wanted to, she could make people open up to her and spill all their dreams, hopes, desires, and innermost secrets to her. She never really knew why; she just preferred to listen, rather than talk, in a conversation, and she spoke her mind simply and honestly when people asked her what she thought. Under the umbrella, Natalia told Ellos her own story; how she had come to Twilight Town, her hopes for the future, her interests, her friends, her fears. Ellos listened appreciatively; she enjoyed listening to the lives of other, of their little struggles and oddities. Most people thought that descriptions of their day-to-day lives would be boredom fodder, but these descriptions of normalcy gave her a feeling of peace.  
  
The two girls walked on, admiring the same sights through two very different pairs of eyes. Their conversation wandered from their lives to the recent going-ons in the Bell Tower; a great amount of it gossip which Natalia spouted while Ellos listened.  
  
Suddenly, Ellos observed a flash of blue out of the corner of her eye. Turning, she saw a woman in a dark blue raincoat, holding an umbrella by her side.  
  
"And then he...Umph!!!" Ellos grabbed Natalia, clutching her arm and clamping her hand over her mouth. She led her down a smaller street with a canal down the middle, walking fast but not running, until the woman was out of view.  
  
"What is it?" Natalia asked, fear creeping into her voice.  
  
"That woman in the blue raincoat. Something was wrong with her. She didn't move right, didn't act right, didn't look right.  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"I'm never mistaken about these things."  
  
"So what do we do?"  
  
"Head back for the Bell Tower. It was a mistake to come out here..."  
  
As she spoke, the woman emerged from a side street, cutting off their escape. Ellos grabbed her. "Into the water!"  
  
Pushing Natalia into the canal, Ellos balled her fists, the blades, attached to the gloves, coming out with a whoosh. The woman in blue looked at the canal with Natalia in it, and, as Ellos though she would, drew away from the water with an involuntary shudder. With a yell, the woman in blue threw herself with a bloodcurdling shriek at Ellos. Ellos plunged the blade deep into her gut and yanked it out, backing away.  
  
The woman fell to the ground. Then, something like a black cloud seemed to float off the woman, except she seemed to be emancipated and starved, barely able to stand. It floated around the body, thinking for a minute. Then it descended back on the woman's body, covering all of her in a black cloak that reached up to her jawline. Moving the half-dead body on it's feet, jerking like a marionette in the hands of a toddler, and charged again to Ellos.  
  
Knocking it off it's feet, she began to stab it repeatedly, with her blades as big as normal sword blades. Once, twice...so many times she lost count. At first the black cloud pulled the screaming woman back on her feet, each time the movements more jerky and stumbling. Even when she died, her heartless parasite still hauled her to her feet, still trying to use the woman's body to scare or disgust it's attacker. But Ellos would not be discouraged; she kept stabbing again and again and again...not stopping, each stroke carefully calculated to do the most damage, as cold and efficient as a machine. That was what scared Natalia the most; Ellos coldly plunging the knife into the woman's body, trying to get at the swarm heartless that, finally giving up on trying to move the woman's body, had gone inside her, using her body as shelter. The woman screamed and convulsed, the heartless inside her killing her slowly. Blood dripped and sprouted from her knife wounds.  
  
Ellos stopped. The heart of the heartless drifted up from the woman's body and disappeared. But still she heard screaming, pounding in her ears, turning around, she saw Natalia. She was standing in the canal, waist deep in water, screaming her head off. Screaming, screaming.  
  
"Natalia, SHUT UP!"  
  
She instantly closed her mouth, sobs still wracking the girl's small frame. The shock of hearing Ellos raise her voice was enough to silence her. Ellos jumped in the canal, no longer worried about getting wet; the rain had already soaked her. "Go back to the Bell Tower and get Leon and the Nobody. He needs to see this. Tell him there are Predator Heartless in Old Venice." The fawning hero worship was gone from her eyes, replaced with a look of absolute terror and fear. She realized what Ellos really was; a killer who killed to keep alive, nothing more. And it filled her with terror and disgust for the older woman. Ellos had seen such realization come to the faces of many people, but in this case, it somehow made her extremely sad.  
  
Helping her out of the canal, Natalia ran, toward the Bell tower. And running from me, Ellos thought. The rejection and fear from Natalia's eyes was almost heartbreaking, for some reason. Why should it matter that much to me? The opinion of a girl I barely know? Ellos wondered. She suddenly felt a wave of depression flow over her, a burden so heavy she could barely stand. She felt...hollow. If someone came right now to kill her unless she gave him a reason not to, she would not be able to think of a single one.  
  
Suddenly, Ellos turned, looking down the waterway. The water, much different in Ellos' sigh than in human sight, appeared completely transparent, the tiny ripples made from falling water seemingly etched in light, each raindrop creating bursts of subtle color and sound, both in the real world and in Ellos' synaesthesic mind. Peering through this covering of light, color and sound, Ellos saw a group of 5 predator heartless, coming for her.  
  
Each was about the size of a man, shaped roughly like a Spinosaurus. They were jet black, with webbed feet designed for swimming. Most heartless avoided the water, because it dissolved shadowflesh and swarm heartless avoided it because they couldn't keep their swarms together in the currents. Their spiked frills cut above the water, their heads and mouths clear of the waves. Their heads where covered in small, closefitting plates of armor, almost indistinguishable from their pebbly skin, a shade of black just slightly more blue than their shadowflesh. The heartless crest was outlined in deepest black, except it seemed to be broken in many places, with cracks of lighter blue-black shadowflesh in it.  
  
As they came closer, Ellos could see their skin seemed to move, made of tiny particles. _Swarm Heartless_ Ellos thought, _Adapted to survive in water._  
  
Suddenly, one of them dissolved into fist sized black spheres. _Each sphere must be a swarm; that means each creature must be made of many swarms, working together_. The spheres gathered together, some flattening out over the others to form it's skin, falling toward Ellos, claws outstretched.  
  
Ellos slashed through it, bringing her left blade across it's middle and her right hand down and to the left, slashing across and down it's middle. The two parts flew apart, spheres flying everywhere, until tendrils of it's skin reached out, connecting the parts, healing them, the spheres flying back into position before the wounds closed. It landed with a splash, fully formed again. By Ellos' side.  
  
The other 4 did the same thing. Circling her, they had the advantage; they moved faster than her in the water, and they didn't need to breathe. She slashed at them, but when her blade came anywhere near them, they flattened out on the surface of the water, impossible to attack. She cut them when they tried to leap at her, destroying as many of the black spheres as possible before they healed.  
  
Feeling claws sink into her leg, she stabbed downward, hitting a heartless. She swing her blade down in the water, stabbing and slicing, until it was too damaged to heal itself, the black spheres that where left drifting off in the current.  
  
Suddenly, she felt the weight of another heartless on her back, dragging her into the water, claws buried deep in her back, reaching for her heart. She felt her wing tear loose through one of the gashes in her back. She dropped in a kneeling position, water now above her head.  
  
Leaping on their now stationary target, the Heartless descended on Ellos, trying to crush her under their weight. One grabbed Ellos' wing, almost ripping it from her back, gnawing on it with it's teeth. The other piled on top of her, forcing what little air she had from her lungs, claws leaving deep gashes on her chest and sides in their mad scramble for her heart.  
  
Form out of nowhere, someone jumped into the canal, and yanked the heartless from her back with inhuman strength. The same person grabbed her around the waist and hauled her up into the air. Gasping for breath and coughing up water, Ellos watched as the figure behind her obliterated the heartless in front of her with a firaga spell. While Ellos did not normal like being helped or hugged, right now she was more thankful for it than she could say.  
  
And incredibly suspicious. Who was this person? She tried to twist around to get a better look at her attacker, but only caught a glimpse of white hair. _White hair?  
_  
And then, suddenly, the figure shifted it's grip on her, putting it's other arm from her waist under her knees and lifting her up, one arm on her back, the other under her knees. With a groan, the figure tossed her onto the street. She landed on her back, the force of her descent winding her. She turned to see a figure in a raincoat with white hair and a blindfold climb out of the canal.  
  
"Ellos, if you tell me you could have taken them down by yourself, I will break your legs and leave you for the heartless."  
...

Ellos started, mouth slightly open. She had wondered what had happened to Strife after she had left him, at the door between Kingdom Hearts and the In-Between World. But she had never thought he would become a Nobody. Well, almost a Nobody.  
  
Ellos' fist smacked into Strife's raised hand; his hand tightening over her's when she tried to draw it back to strike him again. "Well, I suppose that's an answer."  
  
"Let me go. Why? Why a Nobody? Why one of them? Why these stupid games, this messing with people's lives, hiding you identity from me like this? Why bring me?"  
  
Strife let go and spoke, sadness in his voice at the sight of Ellos' hurt. "Would you believe...I'm trying to do the right thing, for all the wrong reasons? Would you believe that I was a Nobody even before I met you?"  
  
Strife turned, walking back towards the Bell Tower, shoulders slumped. He always walked like that when he didn't think anyone was looking; like he was carrying some terrible burden of guilt for a sin which he was afraid of being forgiven. Ellos looked up; it had stopped raining, revealing a jet black sky, littered with stars, the horizon of which was just begging to turn pink with the promise of another twilit day. Rays of the twilight struck the water now dripping from the buildings around them, causing them to flash brilliantly with multi-hued light, revealing tiny rainbows of color only Ellos' and Strife's sensitive eyes could see. The whole place looked innocent and clean, like a brilliant light born from brooding darkness. Hard to imagine she had just killed someone, and probably emotionally scared another, just...how long ago was it? 30 minutes? 15? Better than doing the wrong thing, for all the right reasons. Ellos thought, unaware of the secret irony of this statement.  
...

For the second time, Ellos had to break into a run to keep up with Strife. Because he was taller than her, he had a longer stride, and walked faster. Looking up, she saw the clear sky of Twilight Town. But something was wrong with it. They were dark clouds, floating in the sky, blacker than any storm clouds she had ever seen. As they grew nearer, she saw the clouds where not normal clouds of water vapor and air, but where made of solid darkness and dark energy. Connecting them was a sort of white lightning with a bluish tinge, which left after-images of intense blue fire in Ellos' sight and filled her mouth with a cold-iron tang. He stomach heaved with the _wrongness_ of it, from the evil she could feel emanating from it like an almost visible aura. Patches of it seemed scattered at random over the city, moving and drifting with an insidious, hidden purpose.  
  
"One of them is over the Bell Tower." Strife said, obviously thinking the same thing she was. He grabbed her arm and teleported.  
  
One moment she was on the street, the other she was on the roof of the Bell Tower. Disoriented by her sudden change in location, Ellos sat down on the roof, dizzy.  
  
Above her, the underside of the cloud moved and shifted as if it was a living thing. Wispy, finger-thin tentacles, both light and dark, drifted downward to poke at the walls of the tower, but didn't go in.  
  
_Gummi blocks...Heartless, mindless, and Nobody cannot pass through gummi blocks.  
_  
But now those same tentacles where moving toward them. Many of them where clustered around the clock face, a weak point in the wall because the clock itself was not made of gummi. Strife saw these tentacles too. With a flash, they where once again outside at the front entrance of the Bell Tower. The two raced inside.  
  
Inside the Bell Tower, the inhabitants where preparing for war. Cloud, Riona, Scion, Leon, Yuffie, and any other warriors they could muster where also there, armed to the teeth.  
  
"It's going to break through at the clock room."  
...

Adalai- ok, short little chapter before I leave for the weekend for you. Really more of a connecting chapter, to lead in the next chapter. That doesn't mean important things aren't in this chapter; like Kairi's dream, Ellos finally meeting up with Strife, and the incident with Natalia, and the heartless woman. Turns out Ellos isn't such a heartless bastard after all, eh? Next chapter is going to be really big, with the plot really starting to start up and all sorts of secrets revealed and all that stuff. So it's a crucial chappy. I should have it posted hopefully some time next week. But I won't tell you any more.  
...

_The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.  
-Anonymous _


	9. Chpt 9: Revelation

Lightbringer; Chpt. 9- Revelation  
  
Adalai- Alright Stinky, Disclaimer!  
  
Stinky, Muse of Comedy- Adalai owns nothing. Ok!!!! NOTHING!!! _Runs away bawling, asking 'god why me'_.  
  
Adalai- Ok... that was somewhat unexpected...But I do own the plot and OCs. AHAH! _points and laughs at lawyers, singing 'you can't sue me, you can't sue me...ect, ad verbatim_. Sorry about the lateness. I took a break over the weekend; read my summer reading, read _The Brotherhood of the Tomb_, and learned to slalom ski.  
...

"Just what is in that room?"  
  
Cid grabbed a ring full of keys, fitting one into the lock of the clock room, and answering Ellos. "We rented it out as a workshop to a guy who makes Venetian masks."  
  
Ellos nodded, knives already out of their sheaths. In Old Venice, just like in the original Venice, tourism was a main source of revenue and the symbol of the city and the most popular and common souvenir brought home was a Venetian mask. The Venetian mask business was so large you couldn't spit in a street without hitting a mask shop. No tourist left Old Venice without at least one mask.  
  
Ellos carefully felt the side of her chest for the claw wounds from her previous battle. Last she looked at them, they were too deep to go without immediate treatment. But as she felt them, she found that not only were they not bleeding, but that they were noticeably smaller and shallower. _Full Cure_, Ellos reminded herself.  
  
Turning the key, Cid opened the door to the room. The first thing Ellos noticed was a string of deep blue and magenta music, muffled and almost ethereal, touched with white bands of piano cords. Music and yet not quite music.  
  
Deathly silent, they fanned out, searching for the source of the sound. Ellos with her glove blades, Cid with his lance, Leon with his gunblade, and Strife with...whatever weapons the Nobody use. If Nobody even used weapons. They relied very heavily on magic in battle.  
  
On the wall opposite of them, the giant clock and it's gears continued their measurement of the inexorable onward march of time, a twitch of a clock hand for each grain of sand. The other two walls were covered with bookcases full of books. Between the clock and the door lay the equipment of the mask trade; 6 tables, 4 heavy wood, other's cheaper, smaller, made of plastic. They were covered in masks; plain white _bauta_ with tricorne and veil, _Pulcinella_ or joker masks, cat-like _Copia de Gatti_, the _Civetti_ half- masks, the caricaturized _Harlequin_ masks, sun and moon masks, _Arlecchino_ masks with admiral hats, _Zanni_ masks with huge, elongated noses like raven's beaks, all made of molded paper and gold leaf. Precious artifacts, worth their weight in gold, they were scattered like leaves among bottles of pain and glitter, gold leaf, brushes, enamel, precious metals and stones, rare feathers, and boiling pots of papier-mâché under Burstein burners.  
  
Edging to the last table to the left, Ellos discovered the source of the sound; an old fashioned gramophone, designed to look old but unmistakably new with it's burnished metals and smooth curves. The sound had been that of a gramophone needle stuck in a record groove; playing the same stand of music over and over again. Carefully, Ellos picked up the gramophone arm and placed it back on the record. The machine continued it's scratchy song as if nothing had ever happened.  
  
_Hey Jude, don't make it bad...  
_  
Ellos remained alert, scanning the room. _It's not done yet. Wait till it's over._ Ellos thought. Nothing was done without reason. Someone had put the record on; probably the person who had owned this room, and he had not been seen. And in Ellos' mind that meant _Not Yet_.  
  
_Take a sad song and make it better...  
_  
And then the song was drowned out with the sound of shattering glass. Ellos bolted, a tan colored streak dashing across the room, to where Strife was. Grabbing a chair, she used her own momentum to swing around and bring the chair up, using it as a shield between him and her for whatever would come through that glass.  
  
A stream of deepest black laced with tainted, sickly light slammed into the chair Ellos was holding up. The stream split into two, going around Ellos on either side, covering the room with black and white, corroding the floor beneath them and the tables and walls around them. Ellos felt the chair being eaten away by the cloying darkness and the desiccated light from the stream that had broken from the clock face. She could hear the groans from the floor as the substance ate away at it, dripping through cracks that had opened up down into the lower layers. Those cracks had not been eaten through by the cloud; the floor had been so weakened that it was about to collapse. It shook and rattled, sending masks flying everywhere, tables overturning, spilling hot pots papier-mâché on the floor.  
  
Ellos took a step back, arms straining under the sheer weight of the stream. The floor began to sag under them. Chunks of plaster and gummi blocks from the roof and walls fell down. The gramophone rocked and fell, screeching out it's music despite it's sideways position on the floor.  
  
_Remember to let her into your heart...  
_  
"Strife, A little help here?!"  
  
_Then you can start to make it better..._  
  
Suddenly, Ellos felt the floor leaving her feet. Falling, the chair thrown out of her reach, she fell, the stream following her, a hungry, malovent animal, reaching to devour. Ellos landed, feeling the wood of the floor bellow them on her back. At the same instant, a blue light surrounded her, driving away the darkness around her, an ancient ward of evil; a thin, wraithlike heart, the Heartless symbol filled in.  
  
_Hey Jude, Don't be afraid...  
_  
The stream paused from it's descent on Ellos, for just the tiniest fraction of a second. Not long enough to think, not long enough to prepare. Just long enough to raise her arm a fraction of an inch more.  
  
_You were made to go out and get her..._  
  
Ellos slashed at the stream, slicing it into two pieces. The light and darkness around her seemed to scream in pain. The stream hung there, flailing like a severed limb, and jerked upward, out of the gap in the ceiling. The darkness around them grew and covered the entire room and ceiling, blocking off all light except that light given by the sickly white light, which only seemed to make the shadows deeper.  
  
_The minute you let her under your skin...  
_  
But inside the barrier Strife erected, they where safe. For now. The darkness and light didn't seem to be trying to attack them anymore; it just stayed where it was, shifting slightly, like people in a studio watching a movie.  
  
_Then you begin...  
_  
"Ellos, come here."  
  
Ellos turned, looking at Strife. He was crouching over someone on the floor. That person seemed to...flicker, was the only word to describe it. to fade in and out of existence. What shocked her was that this person looked exactly like Scion, except with brown hair and not blonde. He was wearing black clothes with red and blue in them, and holding a silver keyblade with a gold hilt.  
  
Ellos crouched by the side of the figure. She examined him; he was still alive and didn't seem to be knocked out. In fact, he seemed to be sleeping.  
  
"It's Sora."  
  
_To make it better.  
_ ...

Untangling his fingers from the hilt of the Keyblade, a thousand questions moved through Ellos' mind. What was Strife's friend doing here? Strife had told her that he had sealed the door to Kingdom Hearts. What was he doing inside the black and white cloud that had descended upon the Bell Tower? Why was he flickering in and out of existence, as if he wasn't really here? Why did he look just like Scion?  
  
Strife looked at Sora, similar questions running through his mind. What was he doing here, on Twilight Town, when they had been looking for him everywhere? Why did Scion look just like Sora; that was a mystery that Scion had never really explained to him. But most importantly; what was he going to say? What did you say to a friend you've betrayed like he had betrayed Sora?  
  
_And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain,...  
_  
Somewhere in the broken wreckage, the gramophone continued it's song, miraculously untouched in the chaos that surrounded it, it's song strangely draw out.  
  
_Don't carry the world on your shoulders...  
_  
_Hey Strife, You okay down there?  
_  
Hearing Scion in his mind, Strife answered sarcastically; _Yes, where fine. Other than being surrounded by seething darkness separated from us by a thin layer of spells, we're just Kosher._ How are the others?  
  
_Unhurt, thanks to Ellos' little stunt. We can't get to you because of the seething darkness just mentioned above cutting off the room below. Leon and Cid are going down the stairs now to try to fight his way in through the door.  
_  
_One more thing...Sora's here.  
  
What in the 10,000 hells...  
  
He's unconscious though...  
_  
Suddenly, Sora sat up, gasping for breath. Ending his internal monologue, Strife looked at Sora in surprise.  
  
"Sora? You okay?"  
  
"That's not the story."  
  
Head cocked to the side, a sign that she was confused, Ellos looked at Strife as if to say _What the Hell's he talking about?_ Strife shrugged.  
  
"We've forgotten the true story over time, but we still remember it; Adam and Eve, Pandora's box, the story of the Keyblades, Kairi's story.  
  
_Stories of mankind's first sin_, Ellos thought, recognizing the first two stories but not the last two.  
  
_For well you know that it's a fool...  
_  
Sora turned to Riku. "I have to find...you have to help me, Riku, help me find them, help me find the others..."  
  
Something was wrong with him. Ellos could feel it. Almost like more than one person was controlling him, fighting over ownership of his body. There was something about his eyes she didn't like; they seemed...empty. And he reeked with a sort of darkness that Ellos had never felt before.  
  
_Who plays it cool...  
_  
"Have to find the keyhole to this world...you have to help me, you're the only one who can do it..." then he turned around, muttering distractingly, running his hands through his hair.  
  
_By making this world a little colder...  
_  
"Remember the first line of the story?" Sora said, turning back to Strife, going from distraught to utterly composed in a blink of an eye. "Long ago, the children lived, bathed in the warmth of the light. The story was wrong from the beginning. The children didn't have any light, any darkness...It's wrong, all wrong. Then there was the End. The End and their own stupidity brought their downfall...now the End has only to wait, wait for the right time, now that the Endless are gone and they can't link any more hearts...now that the Endless are gone..."  
  
_Hey Jude, don't let me down...  
_  
"I have to find the...Lucifer, Have to find it... 'The true light sleeps, deep in the darkness...but the door to the light is not behind the darkness..."  
  
_You have found her, now go and get her..._  
  
Ellos looked at Strife. Lucifer meant 'Lightbringer' or 'Lightbearer'. It was also the name of the devil, before he fell. The greatest of all angels, created to be the servant of all mankind, before his pride caused him to fall, and he became Satan, 'adversary'. The serpent who tempted the first humans to sin in Paradise.  
  
Sora began walking forward, hands in his pockets, an air of melancholy around him. He began to fade, and then vanish.  
  
_Remember, to let her into your heart...  
_  
Strife turned around and grabbed Ellos. "Where's the keyhole for this world?  
  
Before Ellos could answer, the shield barrier went out and the darkness, which had been waiting for so long, began to encroach, creeping towards Ellos and Strife. Turning, they saw Leon, Scion, and Cid (wow, they rhyme!) finally break through the door.  
  
"Ellos, Strife...Holy &%$, what the !$% is that!"  
  
"No time to explain. I think Sora's headed for the keyhole."  
  
"Wait, Sora's here?! Why was I not told?"  
  
Ignoring their questions, Ellos grabbed Strife and pulled him out of the room, trying to remember where the keyhole was. Followed by Scion, they could feel the tower shake, throttled by the dark cloud, which had broken into the Bell Tower at several places already, darkness leaking in and corroding the gummi blocks the tower was made of. If she remembered correctly, it was somewhere in the center of Center city...  
  
Running down the stairs, through a corridor, Ellos suddenly felt the presence of a dark energy she had started to associate with Sora. She turned and nodded to Strife, jerking her head at the door.  
  
_So let it out and let it in...  
_  
The Nobody understood. The Oathkeeper and the Oblivion manifested in his hands. Handing the Oblivion to Strife, he pulled out the Kingdom Key from beneath him raincoat. Ellos blinked; hadn't Sora just had that Keyblade?  
  
Ellos grabbed her two weapons from the back of her jacket, bringing them in front of her with a twirl; this was a job for the big boys. Ellos' weapons had been found with her when she was abandoned in Kingdom Hearts; They were hybrids between quarterstaffs, swords, pikes, and guns, shaped like stretched out 'S's and looked vaguely like two keyblades joined at the hilt, the heads of the keys facing opposite directions.  
  
The first consisted of a black bat's wing, with a crescent shaped blade attached to one of the sides of the batwing blade, with regularly-spaced spikes on it. the bottom was wood, with small blades attached to the side, and a triangular piece of metal, similar to a lance head, on the bottom. Another crescent blade with spikes was at the bottom, facing the opposite direction as the one on the top. It had two slender chains on it, connecting the spike on the bat-wing blade to a hook in the middle, and the hook in the middle to the bottom, just above the lance head.  
  
The bottom of the second consisted of a gun, with a piece of metal shaped like a spade cut in half with three spikes, the middle larger than the side ones, on top, and a curved, serrated blade, adorned with a stylized engraving of an angel wing, on the bottom. The top consisted of plain wood, with a orb with three spikes on top, facing the opposite direction as the spikes on the bottom. It was held in place with several metal strips and two more of the half-spade shaped pieces of metal. A thick, heavy chain made of metal links extended from the top to the middle.  
  
Both had small metal handles extending perpendicular from the weapon, connected to the middle by a ball-and-socket joint. for a picture, go to the photobucket website, search for Ellos 06 (underscore between Ellos and 06), look in the album called 'pen'. It's the only picture in there, called Untitled-20.Ellos twirled the blades back and forth, testing their balance.  
  
_Hey Jude, Begin..._  
  
Strife reached up and opened the door. Sora was there. Darkness and burning blue-white light danced over him, centered around his keyblade.  
  
"They're coming, you know. Coming for this world, to take it. Look at this." Sora said, throwing up his arms, indicating the age around him. "This monstrosity, this lump of progeny and nonsense, this senselessness and chaos. This stupid balance, all these mindless hearts running around, living and dying without even being noticed just because of the sheer numbers of them. It's funny really, all those hearts out there and not a one knows the truth."  
  
_You're waiting for someone to perform with...  
_  
Turning, Sora pointed his keyblade at the wall. A blue light shot from the tip of the keyblade, forming a blue keyhole. "the Door to the Light; it can't exist! It can only be made from the heart of one of the original children, which held the true light used to make the Present World. 'And they found that light, in the hearts of children.' But the children are all dead! They'll never be a Door to the Light for me to open!"  
  
_And you don't know that it's just you,...  
_  
As they watched in horror, two beams, one of darkness and one of light, went from Sora and into the Keyhole.  
  
"And Hearts; they're just mistakes! Born from failed Heartless and Mindless, generations ago, Light and Darkness thrown together! Light and Darkness aren't suppose to be together, in balance; they are just suppose to be Light or Darkness in a Heart, just a Heartless or a Mindless. Look at how easy it is to make a heartless or mindless from a heart; That is the natural state of the heart! To be either Darkness or Light, not this in- between state!"  
  
As they watched, the Keyhole began to fade, parts of it breaking off and dissolving.  
  
_Hey Jude, you'll do...  
_  
"I'll unlock the Keyhole, free the darkness and light inside. Then all hearts will revert to their true state; of mindless and heartless. I'll do it to the Doors, and all the Worlds will be connected to each other. I'll fix the children's mistake; return everything to the way it once was, before the Riven, before hearts. No more keyblades, no more stupid fumbling for doors that don't exist; Just Light and Darkness and the End.  
  
Sora smiled, almost sadly. "Just nothing. No more pain, no more separation, no more grief. We can't wait."  
  
_Hey Jude, don't make it bad...  
  
_Suddenly, the connection between the Sora's keyblade and the keyhole fizzled out. Strife stood, Oblivion in hand, a thin line of blue and gold between him and the Keyhole, the blue energy filling out the keyhole, and yellow seeming to wash over it, protecting it.  
  
_Take a sad song and make it better...  
  
_Sora grinned. "Too late."  
  
A huge wave of darkness and light seemed come from the Keyhole. Building up, the mass pushed at the golden wash over the Keyhole. Sensing what was about to happen, Ellos stepped between the two Nobody and the Keyhole, twirling her weapons and crossing them in front of her chest.  
  
_Remember to let her under your skin...  
_  
"Get ready for it!"  
  
A new voice for Ellos and Scion and a familiar one for Strife, all three paused, distracted.  
  
And then the Keyhole broke.  
  
A huge wave of darkness and light, a power greater than any Ellos had ever seen, came from the keyhole, edged in gold, the last of the Keyblade's power trying to contain the force. It slammed into Ellos, causing her to reel backwards. Struggling, she managed to force the weapons forward, away from her chest, only to have them thrust backwards again. Only a second had passed, and she already knew both her arms where broken from the force of it, her body pushed back almost to the wall.  
  
_And then you'll begin...  
_  
Ellos heard chanting from new voices, women's voices, in her head. Her weapons began to glow all different colors, each color on one with an opposite color on the other. Red on one, Blue on another; gold on one, silver on the other, ect. She felt Strife grab her around the waist with one arm, the other holding the Oblivion, steadying her and helping her resist the flow.  
  
"Hang on!"  
  
Another second passed, forcing both teens into the wall, pressed against each other. Strife struggling with the Oblivion, the gold light beginning to faze out.  
  
Suddenly, the chanting stopped, Ellos weapons stopped glowing, and the tide of darkness and light stopped, the halting almost as violent as the flow itself, slamming into her as a physical force. Winded and knocked unconscious, Ellos and Strife collapsed to the ground. The last thing Ellos remembered seeing was two figures, one a tan, blond boy with uneven pants and the other something that could be only, in the vaguest sense, described as a woman, with a large, flower-shaped organ behind her ear, yelling  
  
YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
_To make it all better, better, better, better...  
_ ...

Adalai- wootage! The whole things done, and all in one day, too. Right on schedule. Mmmuuuaaahhh-ha-ha-ha-ah!!!! How's that?  
  
Stinky- evil...at least to the people at Blockbuster who put Care Bear episodes in the horror section.  
  
Adalai- Darn. _Goes off the practice evil laugh_  
  
Sephiroth- _hears Adalai's evil laugh_ needs to be deeper and with more of a cackle...  
  
Cloud- what would you know about evil laughs? Or being evil, for that matter?  
  
Sephiroth- If I'm not a great evil villain, than why would I have a rule dedicated to me in _The Grand List of Console Role-Playing Game Clichés?_ _Pulls out list_ Check out number 144.  
  
Cloud- _flips through list_ 144...144...144...Sephiroth Memorial Escape Clause- any misdeed up to and including multiple genocide is forgivable if your cool enough...  
  
Stinky- I need a Sephiroth Memorial Escape Clause...  
  
Cloud- Hey, no fair! I was the main character of that video game; why don't I have any rules named after me?  
  
Stinky- You do. Check out 13 and 104.  
  
Cloud- hhummmnnn...The Higher the hair, the Closer to God (Cloud Rule)- the more outrageous the hairstyle, the more important the male character is to the story...The...WHAT!!!! Miss Cloud rule!!!!

Stinky- hehehehehehe...  
  
Cloud- I'm not a transvestite!  
  
Stinky- sure you are...  
  
_Cloud goes and beats up Stinky, because Cloud is a Jenova clone with a giant sword and demon wing, and Stinky is just an old cat who can't lie on his back because he's too fat to breathe._  
  
Adalai- Ok, how about this... _sees Cloud mop the floor with Stinky, literally_ uh, nevermind... that's all the time for today folks! And remember, review! This Chapter is dedicated to Blahx3, my second reviewer! You get a bacon omelet! And what's left of Stinky, if you want it...

...

_Are your marvels declared in the darkness, your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion? _

_ - Psalm 88, verse 13_


	10. Chpt 10: Children of the Storm

Lightbringer; Chpt. 10- Children of the Storm  
  
Adalai- Alright Dante, Disclaimer!  
  
Dante, Muse of Drama- Adalai owns nothing. Ok!!!! NOTHING!!! _Runs away bawling, asking 'god why me'.  
_  
Adalai- Ok... that was somewhat unexpected...But I do own the plot and OCs. AHAH! _points and laughs at lawyers, singing 'you can't sue me, you can't sue me...ect, ad verbatim_.  
...  
  
"Hellooo..."  
  
Ellos blinked, mentally fighting the sleep away. Her mouth felt like it was filled with cotton, her head was filled with fuzz. Even after her blackout, she still felt tired and weak. She felt breathless, dizzy, and had a pounding headache and ringing ears. Looking down, she saw her skin was it's usual pallor; not tan. Her waking mind was still filled with a dream she had while in unconscious. She was running, blind yet not blind, in a forest full of bare trees and smooth stone ground, chased by a figure in a brown and black cloak, and a black castle near waterfalls that flowed upwards.  
  
Next to her, the woman poked and prodded at the claw wounds in Ellos' side, flower shaped organ moving and twisting, like a third eye on the side of her head. She spoke.  
  
"Where did you get those Gebo 1 of yours?"  
  
"I've always had them." Ellos replied, realizing that she was talking about her twin S-shaped blades. "What...Who are you?"  
  
The woman smiled at her, a motion surprisingly full of candor on such a usual face. "I have not chosen a new name yet. But I am...what is it that you call us? Ah yes, an Endless."  
  
Ellos blinked, looking at the woman. How did a grown woman not have a name?  
  
"Well...I have to call you something."  
  
She merely smiled. "Your kind seems to have a preoccupation with giving everything a name. _Whatever the man called each of them would be its name_. Could you think of a name? I would be honored to be named by you."  
  
"How about Carmen, Celeste, Cahya, Cheryle, Camyron, Claibourne?"  
  
"What do those names mean, though? A name has to have meaning."  
  
"Hmmmnnn... Camyron means bent nose"  
  
The woman wrinkled her nose, prodding the wound in Ellos' side with a pair of tweezers, obviously not liking the name.  
  
"Okay...Carmen means garden or field of fruit. Claibourne means 'from the earth'. Celeste means heavenly, Cahya means life, and Cheryle means loved."  
  
"I think I'll take Claibourne. From the earth. And Clay as a, nickname you call it?" Pushing the edged of the wound aside and keeping them apart with pieces of metal, Clay slowly uncovered something dug into Ellos' side. Something black and pulsing.  
  
"The heartless that attacked you and Natalia; how long did they have their claws in you? 5 seconds? Ten?"  
  
Ellos shrugged, not remembering. "Only a few seconds. Why?"  
  
"It only had its claws in you for seconds, but it managed to lay 5 eggs?" Clay grabbed a mirror and tilted it upward, so that Ellos could see the deep lacerations in her side.  
  
The edges of the cut had been pulled apart as much as possible, showing two lumps of black shadowflesh. The middle was shaped like an oval, transparent pouch, each filled with 2 spiked black balls. One end, pointing towards the skin, was funnel shaped, ending in a valve with five flaps, attacked to the skin by thin fibers extending from the tips of the flaps and spreading out in a star-shaped pattern just under the skin. Ellos could see three other star-shaped marks on her skin, where it had healed over the other pouches. The end pointing towards the body was made of tiny, suckered tentacles, which where attached and wrapped around a blood vessel at the bottom of the cut.  
  
"I have no idea what they are" Clay said. "Since they can't be eggs. Heartless don't lay eggs. But probably something very similar. I don't know how to remove them yet; they're wrapped around the blood vessel, and I don't think I can remove them without causing it to rupture and you to bleed to death."  
  
"These marks and pouches; they weren't there before. How?"  
  
Clay prodded the pouches, cutting them open with a scalpel. "It was probably pieces of shadowflesh accidentally ripped off and left in the wounds. But the heartless evolved, and the shadowflesh in the wounds evolved too."  
  
Picking up a pair of tweezers, Clay plucked a spiked ball from one of the pouches in Ellos' side. "They are very sophisticated organisms; they have a nervous system and a circulatory system to pump the blood they take from the blood vessel; see the little heart on top of the pouch, how the vessels on the side pump up and down in a pulse? It's taken a lot of your blood, especially red blood cells, for some reason. That's why you're so pale; anemia. Damn things are like vampires. Wonder what they're doing with all that blood..." She trailed off into murmurs.  
  
Bring the black ball with her, Clay placed it under a microscope, examining it. Ellos, in turn, examined Clay.  
  
Clay was about 7 feet tall, and had the appearance of something that was half human and half sea creature. Her form and body was that of a human; hands, arms, feet, torso, and head. But her skin was different; strips with scales like fish, strips that seemed to be made of pure energy or some kind of aether, rubbery shark skin, clear jellyfish-like skin, faintly luminescent, semi-transparent spotted skin, like that of a baby squid, studded with suckers on the backsides of the arms and legs. Her fingers and toes where slightly longer than normal humans, with transparent webbing between them. There was also webbing from the top half of the upper arms to the sides. In the places that where clear, she could see muscles made of glittering white ropes, multicolored blood vessels, and organs whose use Ellos could not even guess. All of her skin was covered in stripes and whorls and strange abstract figures and tattoos in blue and green. Small fin-like and feathered wings, not wholly flesh and not wholly energy, hung down from her hips, shoulders, elbows, knees, back, stomach, arms, legs, neck, ankles and wrists, making a sort of organic clothing that covered her body. Small plants seemed to grow from her skin covered her entire body. Her body seemed to be too perfect and muscular for that of a normal human, and distinctive features and peculiarities were distinctly exaggerated.  
  
Her hair seemed to be made of short, twisted sticks, tiny plants growing among them, tangled with small braids and curls of orange hair. She also had deer antlers, growing from her forehead and swept back with the rest of her hair. He face seemed to have a spherical, streamlined quality that made it appear more dolphin-like than human, with large, liquid eyes devoid of eyebrows, eyelashes or lids. They had no pupils or whites, like crystal orbs extending endlessly downward, filled with shifting colors and metallic hues.  
  
"Interesting" Clay said. "First hive minds, now symbiosis and synthesis?"  
  
Ellos leaned over as far as possible, trying to see what Clay was looking at.  
  
The black spiked ball was covered in a clear jelly-like material, in which resided small flat worms. "They're using the worms and minerals from the blood to synthesize shadowflesh and fuse it with living flesh. So they can heal from wounds." Clay said. "When they hatch, they take the heart of their host, break it into pieces, and each piece becomes a new heartless, complete with a body made from this new type of shadowflesh."  
  
"Sleepers." Ellos thought. Suddenly, the woman heartless, the appearance of the predator heartless, the infestation of heartless in the lower levels of the city, the appearance of Sora, the disappearance of the edge worlds, emerged as a terrible, looming truth.  
  
'I'm not going to remove the pouches; too dangerous. I'll just remove the spiked balls inside." Clay said, plucking the other ball from the pouch and examining it. She murmured under her breath. "Released from their seals like the horsemen of the apocalypse."  
...  
"Where one falls, two more shall rise. The Endless." Scion said, tossing an old scroll at Strife.  
  
It contained on one side a drawing of Endless, some human, others animal, some beautiful, others grotesque, some tiny, others human-sized. All had the same flower-shaped organ on the side of the head. They were on a background of strange plants and animals, twining and sometimes even blending seamlessly into it. The back was covered with strange writing.  
  
"20 years ago, the Endless homeworlds were wiped out by an invasion of Heartless and Mindless. No one knows why they were wiped out, or anything much about them; the Nobody and Endless where always at each other's throats, only working together when the Gathering was called. As time went on, we became more and more estranged. Eventually we lost all contact with them, and any NEO who had ever met one is long since dust, except for the Enigmatic man. They alone hold the keys to start the Gathering. Whereas the symbol of the Nobody is the door, the symbol of the Endless is the key."  
  
"We are still unaware of the extent of the Endless power. Legends say they can shape shift, practice necromancy, grant and have healing powers, create demi-keyblades and hearts, manipulate magic like sorceresses do, but to a greater extent. But the most amazing story, and the one which we know they can do for sure, is create new ages and change existing ones."  
  
Tidus leaned over the railing of the balcony the Nobody where sitting on. "But that woman that saved me on Destiny Islands; Ri...Strife, she was as Endless. She told me that herself."  
  
Strife nodded. "The Nobody have been looking for a survivor of the Endless for some time. Even a half Endless would be helpful. That's one of the reasons we brought Ellos here; we thought she might be a half-Endless, but now I don't think so. The fact that she had been brought into Kingdom Hearts when she was young, that she didn't know anything about her birth, her home age, and her parents, and she was born the exact year it happened; it was suspicious."  
  
Scion spoke. "We are going to take her before the Enigmatic man tomorrow, into the In-Between world. To see if she can start the Gathering."  
  
Tidus was confused. The Endless had saved his life, and then brought him here, promising to help him find any survivors from Destiny Islands. The first place they went to, they found Sora and Riku, who had been missing for 4 years and where presumed dead. Riku told Tidus the whole story; how Sora got the keyblade, about Kairi and the princesses of heart, him being possessed by Ansem and finding he was the true keyblade master, and latter being locked into Kingdom Hearts with King Mickey, being found by Ellos, and then escaping into the In-Between world and finding that after he was a Nobody.  
  
"But how could you be a Nobody?" Tidus had asked.  
  
"Nobodies are made from the cast-aside bodies and parts of the heart not used to create a heartless. When I left my body to Ansem, I left a large part of my own heart with him. When he was destroyed by the blast of light, my body returned to me, and I can only guess that Ansem is now dead, or at least very weak.  
  
"If I had been in the In-Between place and or in the Present world, my heart would have probably died and I would have become a shell. But because I was in Kingdom Hearts, My heart fed off the dark energy and became whole again."  
  
"So in essence, I am a Nobody, but at the same time, I'm not. I have all their powers and abilities, but my heart is whole and isn't entangled with theirs."  
  
"Do you still love Kairi?"  
  
Riku looked at Tidus, surprise on his face. "Were we that obvious?"  
  
Tidus laughed. "You might as well have had signs on you, bro."  
  
Riku smiled, a rare thing for him, even if this smile was sad. "It's not a matter of whether or not I love her, but whether or not I'm willing to let go."  
  
Tidus shrugged. "So why this 'Strife' charade?"  
  
Riku looked out the window, hands crossed in front of him. "There are lots of people out looking for the true Keyblade Master; Nobody, the Heartless and Mindless, and god knows who else. King Mickey thought it was a good idea to give me a new name so I wouldn't be as easy to track. Tell me about what's been going on in Destiny Islands, how it fell. It could be important."  
  
Tidus told him about the changes that had happened while he was away, what everyone had been doing, about the battle with the predator heartless on the hill, Strife occasionally asking questions.  
  
"How did you meet the Endless?"  
  
"I was fighting- or rather, trying to fight- the heartless, and she just came out of a heartless portal and grabbed me. When I opened my eyes, we were in this big empty space; one side was white and the other was black, and there was no ceiling or floor. There were just all these clear glass doors. The ones nearest to us went to different parts of Destiny Islands. We went into the Secret Place."  
  
"What did you find there?"  
  
"There was this stream of darkness and light coming out of the Keyhole; but there was something else coming out of the Keyhole; this kind of power, this light; of all different, shifting colors. There wasn't much more of it than just a tiny spark, but it was shining brighter than all the other light from the Keyhole. It wasn't destroying anything; just kind of going along for the ride."  
...  
  
"Knock knock."  
  
Ellos turned over, seeing Strife's tall, thin form in the doorway, that infuriating smirk on his face. "Who's there?"  
  
"Strife."  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"I wanted to see if you were ok."  
  
"Right." Ellos said, not believing him for a minute. But she was glad for the company of a friend, insincere though he might be.  
  
"What was that that you where chanting back there?"  
  
"Back where?"  
  
"With Sora. You chanted something and your weapons started to glow."  
  
Ellos scrunched up her face slightly, confused. "I heard chanting, but it wasn't my voice and she didn't remember saying anything."  
  
"Hmmmnnn... Strange. How did it go?" Strife asked, crossing the threshold and standing over Ellos on the bed.  
  
"She couldn't remove the whole thing, but she removed the eggs. All ten of them."  
  
"Owch."  
  
"Yeah, I'm lucky like that."  
  
"What do you think about this? What theory have you concocted now?"  
  
"What makes you think I have a theory?"  
  
"You have that look on your face. When you smile and try to hide it by biting your lip, I just know you've concocted some theory. It's the only thing you can't hide."  
  
Ellos smiled slightly, no longer trying to hide it. "Ok. Think about it; why, if there are so many heartless roving around the city, why do they stay away from the surface? Why have they not found the keyhole yet?"  
  
"And why are the Predator heartless here? The heartless that I killed, the one that looked like a woman; It was too weak to be of much use in fighting. The only use I could find for it was as a spy. And those eggs inside me, they where designed to be sleepers; they are put into the wounds, and people just cast cure over them, not knowing they are there. The eggs weaken the people they're in, and hatch when..."  
  
"When what?"  
  
"When the invasion happens. I know heartless and war tactics; they're preparing to take this age by force."  
  
Strife looked at Ellos, seeing in her face that she was serious. Ellos rarely volunteered information, or spoke about the heartless; so when she chose to speak, Strife knew it was wise to listen. 19 years of experience fighting heartless was not something lightly tossed aside.  
  
Ellos turned on her side, back faced away from Strife, a sign that the conversation was ended. Strife turned to go.  
  
"Do you keep...secrets from me?"  
  
Strife looked at Ellos, her back still turned to him.  
  
"You asked me if I would believe you were doing the right thing for the wrong reasons; I thought I cured you of that tendency a long time ago."  
  
Strife smirked.  
  
"But it is something you would do. You act as if you carry the world on your shoulders. You think it doesn't show, but how can it not? It's a noble thing to do. And tragic."  
  
Ellos heard the door close as Strife left the room, unsure if he had heard her.  
...  
  
_Before  
  
Clamoring of the rocks, one hand in front to steady her and the other wrapped around her precious package, Ellos climbed up the wall, spider-like, heading for where Strife was reading King Mickey's notes.  
  
"Package for you, Strife." Ellos said, joking even though her face was dead serious.  
  
"Stop joking. We don't have mail of Yul." Strife said, rummaging through the papers.  
  
"Fine. King Mickey left this package for me to give to'Strife', but since you don't want it..."  
  
Strife snatched it from Ellos and tore open the box. Inside was the broken remains of what looked like two keyblades; one red and the other blue, and a green letter with king Mickey's seal on it. Grabbing the letter, he opened it and began to read.  
  
**Dear Riku (or should I call you Strife?)  
  
If you have gotten this letter, it means that the worst possible scenario has happened and it may already be too late. I wish I could bear the burden of this by myself, and for almost 17 years I have been able to, but things have happened that can only be rectified by a true Keyblade Master, not simply a Keyblade Wielder. I will try to explain what I know of this situation. I can only hope you will forgive me for my mistakes. If I had been more careful, none of you would have had to suffer as you did.  
  
There are 4 doors; three are the doors between the three worlds, and the door to the light. All these doors are connected to each other, and with the keyholes in the ages; what happens to one happens to the other.  
  
Before 17 years, these doors, Keyblades, and keyholes did not exist physically. They still prevented or allowed travel between worlds, and protected the hearts of worlds from harm, but they did not exist as actual 'doors', 'keyholes', or physical blades that you could physically touch. They where sort of everywhere and nowhere at once, woven into the very fabric of the ages and worlds themselves, everywhere at once and yet unreachable.  
  
The door to the light is different. The true light slumbers, protected by the darkness it generates in Kingdom Hearts; for the closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes. All shadows need light to exist, because all light generates shadows. The shadows that light generates protects it from the evil that sleeps, wrapped around that darkness it cannot penetrate, searching for the door to the light.  
  
The door to the light can be made from the Fissure, as it is called by the Endless, who know it's true nature and the nature of the True light behind it, also exists as the doors between the worlds do- in the very fabric of the darkness of Kingdom Hearts.  
  
But I and the Endless, trying to protect this weakness from the End, which is constantly searching for it, made a terrible mistake; we gave the Fissure physical form, a heart and a will. We don't know how; it should have been impossible, but somehow it happened. And it dragged all the other Doors, keyholes, and Keyblades with it, giving them physical existence and making all the worlds and ages vulnerable to Heartless and Mindless. It made it possible to lock and unlock the doors between worlds and ages, because both the keys and the doors could be manipulated by individuals.  
  
The End seized this chance to destroy those closest to it; the Endless. It also managed to break two of the six keyblades. We managed to hide the Oblivion and Oathkeeper on Hollow Baston, The Golden Kingdom Key inside me, and the Kingdom Key inside you so that the Keyblade Master would have at least one Keyblade ready to use when needed. But the Keyblades, now having a will in addition to their hearts, thanks to the Door being physically manifest, moved around from where we put them. The Oathkeeper moved to Destiny Islands, taking Kairi with it. The Kingdom Key, when Destiny Islands was attacked, went to Sora instead of staying with you and protecting you from the darkness.  
  
The swords you see enclosed are the remains of the broken Keyblades; Souleater and Heartgiver. Souleater locks the door between Kingdom Hearts and the In-between place, and is the only weapon that can completely destroy a heart; in part or fully. Heartgiver opens the door between Kingdom Hearts and the In-Between place, and can completely restore a heart that has been damaged or bring back to life a shade or Nobody. In order to remake these blades, you will need the pieces of the Souleater and Heartgiver, a heart shard from a NEO, and your batwing sword. It was made to be itself a sort of demi-keyblade, made by Endless from a heartless' heart, with a little of their own essence in it. You have to make it yourself; only a Keyblade Master or an Endless can make a Keyblade.  
  
Also, you will have to create a disturbance large enough to attract the attention of a NEO and then destroy it so that you can get it's heart.  
  
The only person you can really trust to help you with this is Ellos. I taught her all I know about the keyblades and she is very familiar with Ansem's work with hearts and the Heartless, as well as her own work with hea Also, being a Half-Dead, she knows how to kill a Nobody and is the only one with the strength, skill, and abilities to do so.  
  
I am sorry that you have to be the one to do this, but you have to get to the Nobody; they will tell you what you need to do next.  
  
I only ask one thing in return for this; let the other Forgotten and Ellos come with you and go into the Present World. No one, not even Ellos, should have to spend their entire life in darkness. They should be able to live in light, find their families and be happy. To start a new life, not living a life that forces them to abandon her humanity bit by bit in order to survive. Also, Ellos may have a rare genetic disease called Marfan's Syndrome, which she needs treatment for or else she will die. To provide you with a way out is the least I can do for both of you and all the help and support you have given me.  
  
All my hopes go with you,  
  
Mickey  
  
**...  
_  
Author's notes  
  
1.)Gebo is the name of a rune, and in this story it is the name of the S-shaped weapons Ellos uses. The Rune Gebo symbolizes gifts and balance. I will put the link to the picture of Ellos' Gebo in my profile so it is easier to get to, under my webpage.  
...  
  
Adalai- yes, It's don-one! Wootage.  
  
Adalai- and on a side note, some people, for some odd reason, think that this story is about to end. Nothing could be further from the truth; I've barely even gotten started. So this won't end for a while yet. Also, I promise to explain why there are multiple Sora clones in this fic next chapter. I promise. Some people may have already guessed it, but maybe not. And now, time to annoy Dante.  
  
_Dante sneaks away, calls in a favor, and is replaced by the real Dante from 'Devil May Cry'_  
  
Adalai- tickle tickle tickle! Time to make Dante break-dance on the wood floor! _Looks up and sees the real Dante._ Eeep!  
  
_Dante beats up Adalai for tickling him_.  
  
Adalai- that's all for tonight, folks. Now time to go and crawl into a fetal position in a dark hole somewhere and whimper while Dante Sparta eats my lunch. Remember to review.  
...  
  
I_ am wrong  
I am right  
I swear that I am right  
I swear I knew it all along  
And I am flawed  
But I am cleaning up so well  
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself.  
_  
- _Vindicated_, Dashboard Confessional


	11. Chpt 11: Of Many Hearts

Lightbringer; Chpt. 11- Of Many Hearts  
  
Adalai- Alright Zena, Disclaimer!  
  
Zena, Muse of Tragedy- Adalai never owned anything, never will own anything, and does not own anything. Ever. So don't sue. It will get you nowhere. Maybe, if she's a really good girl, Santa will give her Riku with a big red bow on his head, but I told her not to hold her breath. Then she started blathering about the Copenhagen Interpretation and Other Worlds Theory, and I ignored her. But yeah, that's the only way she could possibly own anything of Disney's or Square's.  
  
Ok, now to answer Blahx3's latest review...  
  
Don't worry, Kairi and Axel will reappear soon, Axel with his...well, I won't tell who. In this chappie. Sorry about the 'god why me' repeating. I cut and copy the beginning from previous chapters. But this one's new!  
...  
_Dear Diary,  
  
For once, I find myself writing not about me or my day, but about Strife. I worry about him, even though such emotions as worry or regret are useless, as they are reactions to things I can't change.  
  
So why do I worry? Because he is my friend? Because I believe that I can do something?  
  
I know he hides something. I can tell; something that rivets him with guilt and shatters his confidence in himself. I'm afraid it will cause him to do things he will later regret. I'm afraid it will draw him away from those close to him, from those who want to be close to him. But I have too much respect and trust to ask. But how can I trust him if he won't trust me?  
  
I think the Nobody are using that to manipulate him. I think he's using them for his own ends, at well. Why else would he refuse to become a Nobody? I have no clue what he's planning to do, what he hopes to accomplish with the Nobody?  
_  
"Writing in your journal?"  
  
Cid paused, pulling a small, cigarette-sized-and-shaped cigarillo cigar out of his jacket. Cutting off the tip, he lit the cigar by running a lit match over the cut end. To preserve the flavor of the cigar; you learned these sort of things, hanging around Cid.  
  
Ellos breathed in deeply, savoring the sweet, flowery, muted red-purple, green and blue smell of the cigar. She always loved cigarillos for their smell, and the smoke never really bothered her like it did Aeris. It was nothing compared to the hot ashfall and the volcanic smoke form Yul; a little puff of cigar smoke didn't even faze her.  
  
Cid had stopped smoking, but from time to time, he would smoke a cigar, usually to celebrate a victory. Even though he had broken his smoking habit, he could still be seen with a piece of hay or toothpick stuck between his teeth, especially when he was nervous or angry: oral fixation. It was sometimes the only sign of emotion Ellos could read on his harsh, craggy face.  
  
Ellos remembered the time she had first seen Cid; the large butt of a Double-Corona cigar clutched in his mouth, Blue-green eyes considering the broken, ashy-headed teen in front of him. As the first image of Cid she had ever seen, Ellos could never shake the feeling that Cid should have a cigar clenched in his teeth when she saw him; he always seemed more relaxed and natural, more like himself.  
  
Though Ellos could not really consider him a friend; she hadn't spent enough time with him to really be able to call him that, the two did enjoy each other's company. While dissimilar at first glance, they both shared some traits in common; introverted, a common belief that they should not meddle with the lives of others, a reluctance or inability to show feelings, a common interest in working with their hands. It was the same qualities that enabled Ellos to get along so well with Cloud. She and Cid could spend hours in Cid's Assesory shop or the Gummi hangar, working on gummi ships, without saying so much as a "Pass the 5mm wrench" in perfectly comfortable silence.  
  
"Now" spoke Scion, sitting outside with the others on the balcony Leon had brought Ellos to meet the Nobody, "I suppose you want to know about Sora and why I look like him."  
  
"YES!!!" Yuffie exclaimed, almost knocking over her chair as she stood, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation. "We've only been waiting for you to say something!" Aeris grabbed her gently and pulled her back down into her seat.  
  
"Sora's heart was shattered into many pieces. Because all those pieces came from a single heart, they are all entangled. Somehow, all or at least some of those pieces gained bodies. Because they where pieces of hearts, inside bodies, each became a Nobody." Ellos stated. "And because of the fact they where entangled, you though that I would help you located the other Soras. Now, Scion, you fill in the blanks."  
  
Scion nodded. "Sora stabbed himself through with a heartless sword. A heartless sword takes the heart and turns it into a heartless, but differs from conventional heartless in the fact that it shatters the heart into many fragments. Sora turned into several heartless, but one of the pieces managed to return to normal and gain back it's original human body, and all the other pieces also gained a new human body, made from his DNA. DNA's a tricky thing; some of them, like me, gained a blonde-haired gene instead of a brown one, some where female instead of male, some where deformed or had genetic disease thanks to missing, damaged, or extra DNA. Some became Nobody, managing to change back from a heartless, but some...didn't."  
  
Aeris gasped. "Heartless with human bodies and minds; as smart as a normal human, but stronger."  
  
Scion nodded. "Which is why we needed Ellos to track down all the 'reflections' as we call them. We need to kill them, before they manage to do serious harm.  
  
Ellos spoke again. "So the Sora we saw tonight was the original body; but the reflections are trying to gain control of it for their own purposes. That why he seemed so unfocused and constantly changing from one moment to the next."  
  
Scion nodded, aware that Ellos could not see him with her back turned but doing it anyway, out of habit.  
  
"So what now?" Ellos asked.  
  
"You come with us." Strife answered. "The sooner we get this over with, the better. Go to the lab and set up your equipment so that you can get to work as soon as possible. I want to have all the reflections located by this time tomorrow."  
  
Obviously aware the conversation was over, everyone left the room. Aeris said she was needed at the night shift in the infirmary, processing Ellos' DNA test. Cid, Cloud and Ellos merely walked out, knowing whoever wanted to find them would already know where they were. Leon picked his gunblade, always by his side, and went off to practice before turning in. After Leon said this, Yuffie leaped up and said she was going to train too. Leon gave her one of his infamous icy stares. They had a usual relationship, those two. In reality both liked each other, but it was not in Leon's nature to express affection publicly and Yuffie expressed her own affection for the gunblade wielder with play teasing. So to the casual observer, they both seemed at each other's throats.  
  
As the last person left, Strife turned to Scion. "What about Ellos' theory?"  
  
Scion turned to him. "We don't know for sure if they are going to attack this world, and if they are, how and when. And if they decide to, we cannot stop them. We are too few in number."  
  
"So you won't even try. You will just abandon them to their fate." Strife said, disgust and anger in his voice. "I thought the Nobody where committed to destroying the Mindless, to protecting the present world from the Mindless threat by keeping them locking in the In-Between Place."  
  
"We can only do so much, and there are only so many of us. We preserve the balance and fight evil. In absence, evil prevails." Scion spoke, quoting the motto of the Non-Extistant Ones. "You can't save them all. You'll be lucky if you can save even those closest to you. Think about it. Ellos is a mere shell, human only in appearance; she feels no sorrow, no regret, no pain, no worry. Broken in body and mind, but stripped cleaner in heart of humanity than carrion crows strip a carcass. Human hearts don't last in Kingdom Hearts. They get burned away. I know what happens to people like that. Humans can't live without their humanity for long. The memories come back, to replace the humanity lost. They become consumed in them, unable to escape the sins of the past. Sora's just as broken, controlled by others for their own evil purposes, unable to escape a fate he can't fufill, which binds him to a door that doesn't exist. It's driving him crazy, making the darkness in his heart grow and grow."  
  
_All because of me._ Strife thought. _If I hadn't given in to the darkness, if he had never been born on Destiny Islands, Sora would have been safe with Kairi, never knowing about other worlds. I wasn't worthy to be the true keyblade master, but I wished I had been strong enough to carry it, instead of slinking into the darkness like the coward I am. Now he's suffering because of_ **me**. _I should be the one out there, not him.  
_  
Scion continued. "Cloud, Cid and Leon get more withdrawn every time we come here. Aeris spends all her time in the infirmary, trying to make up for all the people she couldn't save before. Yuffie's starting to have panic attacks and mood swings and depression; she's happy and uppity one minute, and in the depths of depression the next. Aeris is thinking of putting her on depressants and bi-polar medication. You can only watch the destruction of your home so many times before it affects you."  
  
Strife looked out the window. He would not give up on this world if it was attacked; despite the fact that his knew and expected his resistance would be useless. Guilt made his resistance grow, drove it to and past the point of recklessness.  
  
The black clouds, laced with burning white lightning, took up the whole sky. For one time only, Twilight Town experienced a night without rain. Though Strife would usually be happy for the respite from rain, it's absence, omen-like, filled him with dread.  
...  
Ellos ran her hands over the materials in the lab, content to be in a familiar setting. But not happy. Ellos had never really felt 'happy' in the sense others did. She could be content, or pleased, but not really happy. To be happy, you had to be consumed by something to the point where you focused only on that thing which provided you with happiness, centered yourself around it to some extent, relaxed. Though Ellos was in familiar settings, she was and never had been completely relaxed, feeling safe. She was never consumed or centered entirely by her work, some part of her mind still focused around the room, waiting for an attack.  
  
Setting up her equipment, Ellos turned to look at Clay when she tried, unsuccessfully, to sneak in.  
  
"Damn." Clay exclaimed, snapping her fingers in front of her. "I must not be remembering how to sneak right anymore. My rein memory must be getting rusty."  
  
"Your rein memory?" Ellos said, fingering the ends of her hair, straight now that she had blow dried and brushed it.  
  
"Reincarnation memory. What' ya doin'? Can I help?"  
  
"Yeah. Go find Scion and tell them to get down here. I need a keyblade and whatever passes for a heart in that Nobody to do this."  
  
"Right-o." Clay said, saluting stiffly and just as stiffly walking away. Ellos merely shook her head, dismissing the Endless' apparent randomness.  
  
_Well what did you expect?_ Ellos thought. Whatever it was that she expected from the Endless, it was not a hyperactive unnamed sea-creature with horns and twigs for hair. Shaking her head slightly, she began setting up her equipment.  
  
Suddenly, She straightened up, head cocked to the side, listening. The sound of guns and bombs going off could be heard through the walls, causing the room to vibrate.  
  
_Planetary defense systems_ Ellos thought, knowing that was the only thing that could make this much noise. Grinning slightly, Ellos picked up her gun and two S-shaped weapons and headed for the Ship Hangar.  
  
_And so it begins._  
...  
It was a beautiful, clear night, pitch black from the clouds which obscured what heavenly bodies might strive to light Twilight Town's darker hours. Bright as noon to Ellos, who shunned the light.  
  
Long, graceful tentacles drifted lazily down from the clouds; slowly, taking their time, as if unconcerned with the multitude of fiery bolts, rain of sparks, and other projectiles from the Sunspires. Fog streaming from they're lithe tips, the tentacles wrapped around the buildings of the Center City. All around Twilight Town, similar tentacles descended from the ominous black sky, a coordinated attack that would make even the most battle-hardened general proud.  
  
Gaining their purchase on the alien soil, the tentacles heaved, contracting. The behemoths slid with terrible, ominous grace over the tops of the buildings. Different from the original heartless ships, each was a heartless or mindless made from a world heart. The bottom of the creature was entirely composed of tentacles. The top had a torso and short arms with long, thin fingers and hands. The head was composed of hundreds of glowing eyes, fixed on many faces fused together, gaping openmouthed, faces contorted and twisted with emotion; sadness, fear, rage, despair. Out of the open mouths flying heartless and mindless and their fighter ships flew like a plague of deadly insects. Whether wailing in despair at the desolation soon to come or moaning in triumph of it's new conquest depended on whether the observer was inside or outside of it. It's appearance had been designed to for functionality as much as it was to impress awe on the weak, fleshy, ensouled bodies bellow it.  
  
Right now those same weak inhabitants stopped where they stood, heads up, mouths agape, some gazing in awe, the wisest in fear, at their destruction. The bolts, magic spells, and screams of launching missiles from the sunspires became even more powerful and frenzied, trying to bring down the heartless ships who shrugged off the attacks like flies. The night sky lit up with moving lights and streaks of fire brighter than the stars, reminders of other ages never seen in Twilight's sky. Meteors hurled downwards as well, remnants of the age's world wall.  
  
They illuminated Natalia's face, giving her an innocent glow she had so recently lost.  
  
"So Pretty..." she said, sadly.  
  
Riona grabbed Natalia, gently guiding her away from the window. She had been like this since she had seen Ellos so violently stab that heartless woman to death; sort of stuck in her own dream world, unwilling and unresponsive to the real one.  
  
Feeling an hand on her shoulder, Riona turned around to see Leon, her own eyes as dark as the night sky was light. Leon lowered his gaze and whispered urgently to her.  
  
"We take nothing, this time. Nothing but ourselves."  
  
It did not matter that he was a SeeD. It did not matter that he was a gunblade wielder. It did not matter that he was an Advisor to the Twilight Town Senate. It did not matter that his financial resources where substantial. Such bodily trappings did not matter to the heartless or mindless; only the heart did. Only one thing mattered, anymore.  
  
Finding a way to get the one person he loved most away from those that had already taken her from him once, away from the falling lights in the sky.  
...  
Working in the Infirmary, Aeris paused, seeing the blinking red indicator light on the DNA machine. She turned around, looking at the results. She blinked.  
  
"3 separate sets of DNA? The samples must have been contaminated." Aeris mused. But as she scrolled downward, looking at the results of Ellos' DNA test, she realized it couldn't be a mistake.  
  
Hearing the shots and missiles through the walls, she saved the information on a floppy disk and headed for the gummi ship. She would go to the Disney Kingdoms, try to find King Mickey. He needed to see this.  
...  
Ellos climbed out of the window and ascended to the top of the building. Near the top, she pushed off from the wall, landing on her feet on the roof. It was a jump not possible for a normal human. Thus Ellos had to expend extra effort to achieve it. Now she stood up, vision much improved.  
  
The sky was aflame with bursts of light and destruction, the missles growing steadily more intense. The noise was overwhelming, the light even more so. Ellos had to shield her eyes against the light, even with her special glasses, which had turned black and opaque to protect her from the glare. Swarm heartless, all variety of new flying predator heartless and a wide variety of different types of smaller heartless ships, some designed as transport ships, others as fighter ships. Utilizing magic attacks and technology from worlds within and even farther than the Twilight System, the nimble heartless and their ships ran circles around even the fastest of defensive fighter craft deployed from the surface of Twilight Town.  
  
Moving it's vast bulk with immense, pondering grace, the massive heartless behemoths smashed buildings and rend cracks and furrows in the ground. Pausing over a building too large to smashed with it's tentacles, the behemoth paused over it, multiple minds joined as one thinking, considering what to do next.  
  
"Second foot down, Lord Axel."  
  
The Shell's lips moved, but as always when one Nobody talked to another, Axel heard the words in his head, not his ears. Waving his hand, he shooed the Shell off impatiently, turning to the other figure in the room.  
  
The figure was wreathed in shadows, only a pair of yellow heartless mako-energy saturated eyes visible. Looking down at the rough wood table, holographic screens imbedded in the wood came online to show the battle bellow.  
  
"All those people on all those worlds who spoke of their wars as such horrible things; they've never seen a war like this. A war to end all wars. This system has grown weak and soft from these 4 years of peace. Soon all worlds will fall to it's fate." The figure with the yellow eyes spoke.  
  
Always unable to hide his true feelings, Axel let his distaste show. He always felt the other was too confident and too artistic for the job. But they were always two commanders; one for the heartless and one for the mindless.  
  
"Perhaps this time, new mindless and heartless will be easier to come by; the pure hearts, will fall to us easier. It is discouraging when so many of them die without knowing the reason why they were marked by the Endless. Without being given the truth, what their hearts where really meant for."  
  
"Good fighters, these. Care should be taken to preserve as many as possible, to convert them."  
  
"Don't talk about converts till we have taken the age. The work must be finished and the lessons delivered before we take the pure hearts."  
  
"Yes, yes." The figure in the shadow's spoke, as If he did not wish to be bored by the details. "Go now, and 'finish the work'."  
...  
Down in the depths of the heartless ship, The mindless hounds howled and screamed, hellish parodies of animal screams, which couldn't be produced by any organic throat. Among them, men and women, taken as prisoners by the Nobody for reasons unknown to them, shrank back from the Mindless hounds, some whimpering in fear, some stoic, some shrinking back, terrified, some only regretting that they were not able to kill the Mindless hounds as much as the Mindless hounds regretted not being able to kill them.  
  
Bellow them, a writhing mass of shades flowed, a hellish parody of a river. Some shades were sleeping, wracked with pleasant dreams or with nightmares; some were, horribly, awake. Beside the river, demons, half-demons, and devils resided, preferring the river of the dead to the company of the living, as they had done in the hells of their worlds, flotsam and jetsam collected by the warden of the Heartless ship's prison to serve as prison guards.  
  
As the crescendo and pitch of the Mindless' hounds screams increased, Kairi stuck her head out of the bars of her makeshift cell. The walls of the place seemed to vibrate, shifting with malevolent purpose. Though she did not know what it meant, her cellmates did. It meant that another age would soon fall to the evil they're own worlds had fallen to. There could be no other outcome.  
  
"Alright, Alright all ready!!!" an irate voice yelled from above. "Sheesh!" mechanical clacking was heard as the doors of the cells slid upward. The hounds rushed out, braying, searching for the one thing that could abate their awful hunger. Most ran out, disappearing through portals leading to the planet's surface bellow.  
  
But as their own cell doors opened, the inhabitants grabbed their own weapons, preparing for what was to come. For not all the mindless would go to the surface, but seek out hearts nearer to them.  
  
Kairi felt her fingers tighten on her quarterstaff. Squeezing herself into a ball, she fought her rising panic, forcing herself calm and praying the mindless would pass her by. Over her knees, she saw a pack of them, 5, jump onto her level and pad softly down the isle, sniffing for hearts. Sniffing for her.  
  
Keeping quiet, she held her breath as they passed by her cell. Down below, another group leaped down to the lowest level, heading for where their demonic guards stayed. She heard the hounds scream, screams of pain as the demons of the pit ripped them apart on their blades, demonic blood giving them a hunger for blood and violence not unlike the heartless' hunger, screaming and boiling in their veins.  
  
Suddenly, the last hound paused, sensing something. Maybe a flicker of energy from Kairi's heart, the carbon dioxide exhaled from her breath. Whatever it was, he turned and began to head, head down and haunches risen, a sign that he was stalking prey.  
  
_Oh God, Oh No, no, no, no...  
_  
Fear twisting her gut into a knot, Kairi stood, quarterstaff at the ready. Crouching, the Mindless leaped, jaws open to devour Kairi in one bite.  
  
With a silent scream, Kairi thrust her metal pole into the heartless' neck, the blunt, pointed end going straight through the windpipe. Heaving, she swung the pole to the side, flipping the Mindless on the side. Ripping the pole from it's throat, she brought it down on it's stomach, unprotected by its armor. In it's death throws, it arched it's back, every spine shooting from it's back into the floor, embedded themselves in the cement. The pole ripped holes in it's flesh, white-blue ichors spilling from it's veins, finally dissolving into white mist, a blue-grey heart floating up, turning red and gold and finally disappearing.  
  
Kairi collapsed against the back of the cell, exhausted. "This place is going to kill me." She murmured.  
...  
_Clamoring bellow the last line of pipes on the gummi synthesizer, Ellos and Strife leaped down from the metal catwalk, landing with a thud on the dirt floor.  
  
"This way, Doc." Ellos said, pulling Strife along behind her. As Ellos jumped down from the ledge after him, Strife felt his breath catch in his throat. After finding out Ellos had Marfan's, he seemed to catch his breath every time she jumped or fought, as if at any moment she might collapse. He had read a little about Marfan's in one of his father's books.  
  
"Don't called me 'Doc', or I swear I'll throttle you." Ellos grinned. "But unfortunately you're the closest thing we have, which is pretty pathetic if it's a kid that gets all his knowledge from watching his dad and medical books."  
  
Sadly, Strife had to agree. He had been living by mending wounds in exchange for slag from the surface.  
  
"Here we are." Ellos said.  
  
The pipes snaked down from above them, settling into a shallow pool of grey water. Strife bent down, running his hands in the sulfur-tainted water. As it trickled down his fingers, he saw that the water, in the deepest part, still retained some of it's blue-green color, so faint only a Forgotten's eyes could see it. It reminded him of the color of the sea at his home.  
  
"There's this weird greenish-blue color in the water we can't get out. In not caused by the sulfur. I'm thinking it might be because of chlorine leaking in..."  
  
Strife laughed softly. "Ellos, water's supposed to be that color."  
  
"Oh. Did you have a lot of water where you come form?" Ellos asked, curious. She had always had an affinity for water.  
  
"Yeah. We lived on an island; we where surrounded by the ocean."  
  
"What's an ocean?"  
  
"Well, imagine water as far as you can see, but a stronger, deeper blue-green color."  
  
Ellos tried, and imaginative as she was, failed. "Will you show me the ocean when we get to the Present World? Your World?"  
  
Strife paused, thinking. He didn't deserve to go back to his home, after helping the darkness that had consumed it. But Ellos did deserve to be someplace happy and carefree. To see the ocean. "I'll show you an ocean, but I don't think I'll be able to get back to Destiny Islands from Hollow Baston; It's just too far."  
  
Ellos nodded. Unslinging the pack from her back, she began to set materials and machines they would need to combine the keyblade pieces and the batwing sword into the shell of the keyblade.  
  
Ellos picked up a piece of Heartgiver and a piece of Souleater. She could feel the keyblade's hearts pulsing in the piece of metal, crying out to be healed. "I'm going to go and sythesis the heart we need to make this thing. You work on the keyblade shell." Ellos said.  
  
Strife nodded and went to work. First, he'd need to make a mould of the bat-wing sword, and then remove the heart from it, and bind it into a completely new sword, made from the remains of the keyblades. They planed to mix it with gummi blocks and pour it into the mould, so it would crystallize into the batwing shape, giving it a sharper edge and making the blade itself stronger, lighter, and less likely to crack. Then they'd have to bind the Endless and mindless essence from the bat-wing blade into the new blade, as well as the heart made from the remains of the 2 keyblades and the Nobody heart. Long, difficult, and with no room for error, it would work.  
  
They just needed a Nobody's heart shard and they had no idea how to get one._  
...  
Adalai- Yes! I am so grea-at, I am so grea-at! I did a chappie with Sora's explination and Kairi and Axel and everything! (_drops down snoring_)  
  
Zena- what happened to her?  
  
Stinky- She took pep pills and sleeping pills at the same time.  
  
Zena- oh.  
  
Adalai- (_wakes up_) And now a word from our sponsors!  
  
Zena- we don't have any sponsors.  
  
Adalai- yes we do. That's weird, Stinky isn't...well...stinky anymore.  
  
Stinky- It had to do with that thing me and Blahx3 did when you gave me up.  
  
Adalai- oh. I don't suppose you'll tell me.  
  
Stinky- lets just say you won't be having anymore problems with Dante Sparta eating your lunch anymore.  
  
Adalai- Ok-kay...Anyway, I cleaned away all the miscellaneous unused characters from this section and put them in the fic. Except for Sephiroth. But now I'm lonely...  
  
Sephiroth- what am I, WEAPON food?  
  
Adalai- So feel free to review and suggest characters, real or imagined, to do my disclaimers and beg people at the end of the chappie to review. However, since Sephy is the only one here, he gets to do the first one.  
  
Sephy- Yay!, uh, I mean, KILL!  
  
Adalai- just read it. Don't make me set Natalia on you. (_Natalia beams at Sephy with cutesy eyes_.)  
  
Sephy- ah, cuteness...to...much...fine, I give. Review please!  
  
Adalai- now back to your cages.  
  
Sephy and Natalia- awww...  
  
Adalai- don't make me use the cattle prod.  
  
(_Sephy and Natalia run into their cages and close the doors_.)  
...

_Because the great day of their wrath has come and who can withstand it?_

_- Revelation, 6:17_


	12. Chpt 12: Deliver us from Evil

Lightbringer- Chpt. 12- Deliver us from Evil

Adalai- (brings fingers together Mr. Burns style) muhahhhhhaaaa...I doing something very evil this chappie.

Stinky, the surprisingly clean and skinny muse of Comedy- What?

Adalai- I'm sticking the hyperactive Clay with the stoic Scion, what did you think? They'll be at each other's throats the whole time.

Stinky- that's cruel.

Adalai- I like to call it comic relief. Sephy, disclaimer!

Sephy- Ellos owns nothing. And she knows she own nothing. She stays up at night crying because she owns nothing. When she's not writing this fic. So don't sue. She only has about 56 dollars to her name. She doesn't own me, either...

Adalai- eheheh...Just 'borrowing' you without asking.

Sephy- but she can send me to whup whoever says otherwise. (_brings out giant buster sword stolen from Cloud and waves it around threateningly_.)

Adalai- eeexxxccellent...on with the fic!

...

Panic had seized the Bell Tower. Citizens ran, all heading from the ship dock where gummi ships and Salvation lay. Bedlam insured without warning; they swirled back and forth like ants thrown in a water pond, ill prepared for it and running blindly in the hope that some miracle would sweep them off this doomed age.

One figure was an exception. Hands in her pockets, (or whatever passed for pockets on an Endless), grateful for the lack of dust that would otherwise cloud her sensate's (1) perception, she wound her way gracefully _away _from the Ship Hangar, seeking out Scion, sensate trained ahead in the direction of the Nobody. Too shell-shocked to care why she was heading in the direction of certain death, the crowds parted easily for Clay. What few did stop to consider her actions, merely assumed she was crazy. She certainly had company in that respect. The whole age around them had gone crazy.

Heading down a corridor, she once again found herself alone. But not for long. Scion teleported by her with a flash of light. Grabbing her, He teleported again, going straight for the In-Between Place.

But nothing happened. "Endless." Scion growled. "Whatever you're doing, knock it off."

Spinning around with inhuman speed, Clay summoned up a Gebo, the same type of weapon as Ellos. But hers was different; She had only one, and hers was sea themed, with spirals and vines running down a curved blade made of light gold, the tip curling into a hook, and a crescent-ax shaped piece of the blade projected from the other side. The end of the staff part had a hammer sticking out one side, and a crescent-shaped ax blade on the other. The chain, after it attached to the middle, extended a foot longer, a spiked ball hanging from it. A double-barreled shotgun ran down the middle of the blade, the middle of the weapon shaped like a modified gun hilt.

"My name is now Clay." She said, grinning. "We are going to that command ship and shutting it down." Scion looked at her as if she was crazy. "It surrounded by Heartless and Mindless. There is no way were getting in there. You're crazy if you think you're getting in there! If they see you're an Endless, they'll kill you."

If possible, Clay grinned even larger. Putting both hands on Scion's shoulders, she said, "They won't even know I'm there." As she spoke, Clay began to fade, color leeching out of her and her flesh becoming more and more transparent, until her body was completely clear, edged in light, until that, too, faded.

Scion whiled around, wide eyed. He knew that Endless couldn't teleport, but after what he had seen, he was beginning to have doubts.

_Up here._

Scion stopped. He had heard Clay's voice in his head. _Where is that Damn Endless?_ He thought.

_Don't take my name in vain_. Clay spoke again inside his head, mentally slapping him. _I changed by body into low level electrical and chemical energy and went into the nerves in you brain. I am, basically, now a thought in your mind. _

_Then get out my head!_

_Aw, but I'm ever so comfortable in here, picking you brain. Think of me as that little voice inside your head that tells you what to do! You know, hunger. _

_That's a conscience, not hunger. _

_Then why do you have a craving for pizza now? Whatever. Same difference. _Clay said. _What matters is now you can get onto the ship. You've got two options; one, pass yourself off for a heartless or mindless and sneak in, or two, get captured. Think of it as a recon mission; we'll find out whose leading the heartless and where their home base is; you can always teleport out anytime you need to. _

Scion considered it. The hyperactive Endless was making a certain amount of sense. But it didn't make him any less angry at her for getting into her mind. "Fine, you win."

_Hmmnnn. I'm still getting an irrational need from you to kick my electric ass. Oh wait, you can't! _

Scion cursed at the Endless under his breath.

_Hey, I heard that! _

Scion mentally grinned at the Endless-turned-conscience. _I know. _

...

Seeing the behemoth pause and it's purpose finally dawn on her, Ellos' expression did not change, but her direction did. Leaping from the building's edge, Ellos corkscrewed at the zenith of her jump, arms and legs spread out, gaining enough height to glide comfortably to a rooftop on the other side of the river on her one wing.

Leon and Riona saw what was coming too. Instead of heading for the gummi ships, they jumped into the water, swimming for the shore. Turning back to the Bell Tower, her eyes widened as she saw what happened next.

Moving with immeasurable grace, several of the tentacles merged into one, slamming to the sides of the Bell Tower over and over, until nothing but rubble was left.

_My god...everyone that means everyone but us is dead..._Riona thought, looking away. Suddenly she saw a flash of red and yellow from the wreckage. Looking up, she saw Cloud and Aeris', Cid's, and Yuffie's gummi ships fly up, executing a series of maneuvers, flying loops around the heartless as they gunned those same heartless down. Some of the few remaining Twilight fighter ships joined them, forming an escort through the living heartless fray. Unable to defeat the flying forces of the ships, they where concerned only with salvaging what little they could from the age. All else was lost.

Swimming across the channel, Riona began to panic. Searching frantically for Squall and Natalia on dark waters only lit by flaming wreckage, she paddled blindly, ever weakening, ahead, the cold of the water sapping her strength and paddling through a blackness that can only be born when all other lights have gone out.

Weakly brushing away a piece of wreckage, she felt the water rise above her head, flowing into her mouth and nose. With her last shred of consciousness, she felt her hand brush the edge of Squall's jacket in front of her. She felt through her chilled skin, rather than saw, Squall grab her wrist and hall her up out of the water.

And saw not his ice-blue gaze but the unearthly shine of lenses, semi-transparent matte-black, like swirling fog over vaguely defined human eyes, set in silver frames. Shocked and afraid but too frozen to do anything about it, Riona didn't complain as the owner of that inhuman gaze half set down, half dropped her on the cobblestone street.

To her credit, Riona held her ground and looked Ellos as straight in the eye as much as anyone could. Most people would have run at the sight of the tall, thin girl with her lensed glaze that seemed to bore into you and her single gleaming black wing, gold at the top fading into dappled purple-and-black at the bottom, which until now Riona had not known existed. Those who knew Ellos' reputation and what that wing symbolized would run all the faster. But Riona would not back down to any foe, Leon knew. It was one of the reasons he had fallen in love with her. But even he would have not thought less if she had cowered or shown fear. For ever rule, there's an exception, and that exception stood right in front of them. By him, Natalia whimpered in fear, always keeping Leon between her and Ellos.

Never one to dwell on the past, even if it was the resent past of just days ago, Ellos offered a suggestion. "I've got a ship ready. You're welcome to come with me if you want."

Leon shook his head. "Too many ships, too many guns. If the heartless don't get us, one of our own will."

Looking up, Riona saw what Squall said was true. The sky was almost completely covered with heartless and mindless; it would be like trying to get through a brick wall. One that fought back. Unable to help it, Natalia let out a small cry of despair, although whether about the heartless above or Ellos beside her they couldn't tell.

But the unspoken implication between the two warriors being, Ellos knew, _You take too many chances. You may be more than human, but Riona is not. I don't trust you to remember that. Not with the one person I love the most. And even if they did survive, what kind of life would she lead with you? Constant wandering, fighting to survive, no home or family, forgetting a piece of yourself day by day? _She was not offended by this. She knew it was true.

Digging something out of her pocket, she tossed it at Leon, looking at Natalia. "You have the ship. I'll go with you; just follow the tracking device. I'll find another way off." Leon protested. "I'll stay here and fight. This world has been good to me, It's my home, where I found Riona; I owe it that much. I just need to get Riona off the age first. If you had a home, wouldn't you fight to protect it, Ellos?"

"The swarm heartless will descend on you before you get a mile from them. They'll pour down you throat like a hungry swarm, choking you. Their tiny claws will gorge your eyes out, making sure you feel ever slash and wound before you die, watch you see your blood pour out your body and turn black. They'll save you eyes and ears for last so you can watch them kill your Riona before they rip them to pieces while they're still on your face. You'll feel your skin start to itch, then burn, then swell with unimaginable pain as the swarm particles rip apart you body on a molecular level.

"Then they'll take your heart. Your heart will drown in it's own evil, losing all that is good inside you. The only way to reclaim it being to recapture what you have lost, but there's no way to do it, because it's already gone. Lost in the depths of your own heart, searching for the true light."

"God has his tricks, and the heartless and mindless have theirs, too. But getting out of hells-on-earth full of heartless and mindless like no one else can? That's one of mine. Stay low, stay fast, follow me, keep their mouths shut and go at my speed."

Sensing the SeeD's hesitation, Ellos walked up to him and placed a reassuring hand on Leon's shoulder. He looked at it as if it where a coiled snake, ready to strike. "Home is where the heart is. Your heart is with her." Ellos said, referring to Riona. "Like the moon, you two shine with the reflected light of your love, your friends, your people. So you are home wherever you are, even in exile. The deepest shadows from the brightest of lights, so the light reflected stays strong, long after the sources of that light go out. You are their immortality, the reason why those hearts chose to come into the work knowing that when they went back from this world again, their short time spent here would not be in vain."

Looking at Ellos with surprise, Leon knew for sure now that he really didn't know Ellos. They had fought together, lived together, worked together, but he really didn't know her. Ellos' little speech was the most words he had ever heard the girl speak in a row, maybe even the entire time they had known each other. She turned and began to go into Old Venice, crouched low to the ground and blending into the shadows as only heartless and Forgotten can.

...

Finally, the behemoth began to move again, away from the shattered wreck of the Bell Tower. The largest one, which had paused over the building too big to be smashed with it's tentacles, also began to move in the same direction. Others joined it, forming a kind of escort to it's final destination, the accumulation of the invasion and the end of it's means. The unimaginably vast black and white masses descended upon the center of the city.

Perhaps some kind of machine descended from the bottom of the ships, causing what happened next. Perhaps it was some bomb, some gravira spell on a massive scale. Whatever it was, the result was a shattering concussion, reducing thousands of square feet of technology and culture in a blaze of light to dust. All that was left was a flat, perfectly circular plane where the center of the age once stood, the dome of the Senate building left miraculously and intentionally untouched.

And, to no one but everyone's surprise, panic ensured. People scatted in 360 directions, the general consensus being every direction except toward the doomed city center. All save the Forgotten, who had to shield her uniquely sensitive eyes and wait for the light-induced blindness to wear off.

Then, some of the ships began to change. The tentacles merged into one, the multi-faced heads becoming one head, tortured and sorrowful expression twisted with wrath. The ships had turned into icons; tall, thin, cloaked, vaguely human personifications of anguish and despair. The pointed bottoms drove themselves into the ground around the senate house like brooding watchers around a coffin at a wake, shovels gouging the earth, aimed at it's heart. The impact clouds from the explosion streamed outward past their feet.

The largest one settled at the head, two other smaller ones behind and beside it, so all three looked like a huge tower, capped with three heads that looked in every direction, missing nothing. The last two began to move again, looking out upon the rest of the city. Looking for something to smash.

Ellos blinked, ridding herself of the hazing purple spots in front of her vision as she stood on top of the building to see. Removing her glasses, she heard Riona and Leon let out a small gasp at the sight of her eyes, with was steadfastly ignored by Ellos as she gazed with something very much like awe at the colossal icons razing from the cremated crust of the center of Center city. Very little could honestly say it had impressed such a woman, but then again, impression was the Icons' purpose.

She saw Heartless and Mindless stream out of the foot of the ship in even greater numbers. But Ellos knew it was not the army; it was a guard of honor. Inside the Senate was the leaders of all the ages of the Twilight System; inside, the leaders of this invasion would reveal themselves and their true purpose while the Senate tried to draw up the conditions of their surrender to them; the leaders would be held there until they complied. There, the hearts of the Twilight System would be given over to those without hearts. It was beautiful in it's simplicity and effectiveness, the only beauty Ellos had ever really come to see and understand. They would not even have to search them out; their leaders would give them over to their enemies.

Placing the glasses back over her eyes, Ellos motioned to the others to join her. "We'll go to my ship, and after you get to it, I'll go on to the ships. Find out who's behind this and report back to you." Jerking her head, she, Leon, Riona, and Natalia ran, crouched under the cover of the shadows, Natalia and Ellos careful to stay as far apart as was unnoticeably possible.

...

Back to the wall, Ellos upholstered the plasma gun from her back. Holding it in both hands, she made a quick scan of the area, pointing the gun at all possible hiding places for gunmen and snipers. She did this twice, before declaring the area clear. The SeeD recognized it as military procedure, wondering briefly how Ellos had gotten military training. He had no doubts about her ruling of the area; Ellos' unique vision could scan an area for hostiles better than any tracking device or scanner ever could. Jerking her head, she motioned for them to continue as quickly and quietly as possible. The plaza might be empty, but that could change in a heartbeat.

Suddenly, when they where halfway out from the plaza, Ellos motioned furiously for Natalia and Riona to go back. They hid themselves under a collapsed roof southwest of where she and Leon where. Grabbing Leon's arm in a grip that felt more like steel and was more shadowflesh than muscle, she ran under the rotunda in the middle of the square, a wooden platform on stilts upon which bands would have played on better days.

Mere seconds after they had hid themselves, Mindless hounds burst from a side street to Ellos' left, driving a force of Twilight fighters before them, hot on their scent. Behind them, hideous, deformed monsters, the product of fusions between newly created heartless DNA and organic flesh, followed, heartless in the shape of black collars controlling the mad creatures before them. Ironically, these monsters had been made from other monsters whose job had once been to scare people. The band served one purpose; to drive out any humans that might be lurking in the ruins and turn them into heartless or mindless, as the situation warranted.

Leon rose, or tried to rise, from his position, but Ellos held him down. "When it's over." She said, an enigmatic expression that could be read as anger, irritation, or mere indifference. "You can't help them. We wait till they come out and we have a shot at their leader."

The band of monsters mauled and raked the soldiers, one by one, while the hounds finished them off and turned them into new mindless hounds. Finally, their where no more of them left.

Finally, the leader of this rag-tag team made his appearance, one of singular size and reputation. His name was Sephiroth, named after the Tree of Life, whose sole purpose ironically among the heartless was to end life. Leon recognized it as Cloud's rival, but to Ellos, who had never heard of this man, it was like going forward in time 20 years and gazing upon Strife's face. The similarities between the two warriors could not be missed; the long, white-silver hair, tan skin, triangular jaw, wide oval face, and tall, muscular frame could not be dismissed as mere coincidence. Especially conspicuous were those eyes; green-blue, but unlike Strife's, glowing with the same mako energy as in Cloud's eyes.

Sephiroth and his squad swept the surroundings; streets, windows, doors, cracks in the ground; all where scanned with remorseless and machinelike proficiency. When they came across a survivor, the hounds ripped the heart straight from the body, turning it into a mindless. They made their way across the plaza, slowly heading in the direction of Riona and Natalia's hiding place.

Having found the source of the squad's leadership, Ellos crept back into the shadows with the skill of a heartless, determined to finish this before the hounds could pick up the scent of herself and her charges. She brought out her plasma gun and shifted the sight from target to target. Should she do it now? Wait? Hope that the hounds would pass them over? She was in range, but Ellos' gun was designed for close range combat, not sniping. She decided to wait.

The team passed the hiding places of both Leon and Riona and Natalia. But one of the monster's stopped. It had the shape of a rust-colored blubbery ball, with 6 arm/legs, two long, sharp, crescent-shaped horns, and one yellowish, heartless-like eye. Bouncing up and down, it turned to investigate the collapsed roof under which Riona and Natalia hid. Noticing the monster's change in direction, several of the hounds followed it and began to sniff the air, trying to find what the monster had seen. It would be only seconds before they picked up on Riona and Natalia's scent.

Then, something unexpected happened. A flash of bight yellow and orange bolted from the ruins, the bouncing monster hot on her trail. She yelled something- a warning to Ellos, running away from the direction they had came. Sephiroth and most of the team proceeded after her, but did not attack. They were curious. It was unusual to see a girl out here, alone and so close to the ruined city center. Killing her would be quick, but questioning her would be just as quick, and more helpful. Leaving some soldiers behind, in case the sudden flight was a ploy, they pursued the lone girl down the twisting streets and alleyways of Old Venice.

Mentally cursing the girl in a way that would have made Cid tear up with pride, Ellos swung around, reacting to the girl's warning of the Mindless hound that had been sneaking up behind her. She fired at it, killing it instantly. Leaping from the shadows, Ellos drew her other blade from her back and attacked the three remaining Mindless hounds. She brought down the two blades up from under the first hound, slicing it into three pieces under it's armor. Casting Areoga, she twirled the blades by her side, gaining momentum for her next attack. With a shudder, the other two sent volleys of thin, needle-sharp spikes in her direction, which glanced harmlessly off the spell's barrier. Running to the second, she thrust the bat-wing one deep into it's chest and the other with the gun through it's neck and into it's chest and fired, hearing a muffled explosion as the hound's carcass flew off her blade and the bullet ripped a three-inch wide hole out the bottom of it's chest. Facing the third, she threw her bat-wing blade at it in a move very much like strike raid, the blade slicing it into two and returning, boomerang like, it it's owner.

Life was simple, Ellos mused. People were not. They made things complicated. Ellos was torn between desire for escape and responsibility to her other charges on one side and guilt and the responsibility she felt for this younger child on the other. Emotions and convictions battled in the wasteland of Ellos' human mind. For once in Ellos' life, emotions won. Turning to Leon, she spoke.

"Take Riona and go to Silver Street, the one with all the jewelers on it. 12 buildings down, you'll find a warehouse. Inside is a gummi ship- mercenary built, so it's tougher than it looks. Tough enough to get you out of the system. There's also a half million in munny I wasn't able to deposit that you can use as you like, start over somewhere. I'll get Natalia and find another way off the age." She didn't say what they both already thought to be a certainty; Natalia's death.

Leon briefly wondered how she had gotten hold of that kind of money and a mercenary ship- and then realized exactly how Ellos had escaped from the mercenaries that brought her in. "Ellos, you magnificent bastard." Leon murmured to himself, getting up and heading for Riona. Ellos headed off in the direction Natalia had taken.

_Compliments later_, Ellos thought.

...

Minutes later, Leon piloted the gummi ship through the ages' atmosphere and out into intra-space. Looking down at the age he had left, it seemed completely covered with inky darkness, long loops of lightning flashing across its surface.

He sent a message to Cid, Yuffie, Cloud and Aeris, telling them the age they were going to. Setting the coordinates of autopilot to Hollow Baston, he went to the back of the room, slight shiver running down his spine at the sight of the cage in the back wall.

Riona was already in Cryosleep when he reached her. Kissing her lightly on her forehead, he was amazed at how peaceful and beautiful she seemed when she was asleep. Like a real angel, not one of those blonde blue-eyed winged things painted in paintings or on the walls of churches. Sitting in the cryosleep booth next to her, he hooked his arm into the machine, antifreeze and nanomachines replacing his blood. Fading fast, one thought crossed his mind. Both warriors had known that Natalia was probably dead, so...

...

_Why had she gone back?_

...

Natalia wondered as she sprinted along the alleyways and backways of Old Venice. What made her wonder the most was she had not done this for Leon, of for Riona, but for Ellos. At first she had found herself terrified at what Ellos was capable of doing, and unable to really come to terms with what happened; still hadn't, in fact. Any trace of anything that could have become a friendship, or even acquaintance between the two girls had died, replaced by a deep sadness for Ellos. Ellos had nothing to live for, nothing to protect or love, not even any light in her being to let her be able to fight for the light, for good. She had lived for too long in the darkness to ever be able to fight for the light. No one trusted a demon who worked on the side of good. It was still a demon. But perhaps she could help Ellos exist somewhere in the shadows, somewhere where time and the world would lie down and pass her by. The shadow of nowhere, as Ellos had put it.

Expecting herself to go down under one of the Mindless hounds at any time, Natalia ran full speed ahead, not stopping to consider the miracle of her continued existence when she didn't feel those expected claws on her skin. She might have a chance, if only she could reach a certain spot.

It was a narrow channel, only big enough for a single gondola to fit down at any one time, but it connected directly to a much deeper channel. She could swim from there to almost anywhere, provided she got to it with enough time to spare, to throw off her pursuers.

Suddenly, as she turned the corner, something flashed in the middle of it. the man standing there before her must have teleported, or leaped, or something, because one second there was nothing there, and the next, a man hovered over the water, supported with one black wing, with blue-green glowing eyes and white-silver hair. Definitely something you didn't want to see in a dark alley at night. Hell, not even in a brightly-light one at noon.

The man had a long, thin, slightly curved sword in his hand, but did not try to attack her. Sephiroth had tried to remember how to look friendly and failed; the smile he had on his face only served to frighten the girl more.

Exhausted physically from running and the events of the past few hours, agonizing about the destruction of Twilight Town, which brought back memories of the destruction of her own home age, and frustrated about not being able to do anything to stop it in both cases, she merely though Sephiroth was toying with her, delaying the inevitable- making her suffer more. Whatever happened, she would not get out alive. She only hoped it would be quick. She wanted to tell that to Leon. She wanted to tell that to Riona. She wanted to tell that to her friends, the Nobody, her family, long dead. But mostly she wanted to tell it to Ellos. Because she had no other way to explain what she had done. Maybe Ellos would realize it, farfetched though it may be. Not that it would matter. Ellos wouldn't care.

Drawing her dagger, Sephiroth stopped but continued to smile at her with that creepy, forced look on his face, trying to calm her. Closing her eyes and hoping she was still facing in the direction the white-haired man was in, she made a sign from her home age she had told the priest of the Bell Tower she had forgotten, the Evil Eye which protected against demons, and attacked.

...

Ellos arrived but minutes too late. She saw the leader, the long, white haired man that looked like Strife step out off the alleyway. Sneaking down, she looked around. She knew Natalia was somewhere around here, but just where Natalia was she wasn't sure. She could smell her, detect her aura. Smelled in her aura she was dead, or close too it.

But to Ellos' surprise, she saw Natalia standing in the water, hunched over something in the water. Unable to believe her eyes, she jumped in the water and waded forward to the figure.

At closer inspection she saw that the person was nothing like Natalia. Different face, different eyes, different hair; she couldn't imagine how she had ever mistaken her for Natalia. But grief and guilt, and Ellos was soon to realize, could cloud perception like nothing else can. Realizing what the girl was doing, she charged at her, waving her weapon to frighten the girl away.

She had been picking the pockets of a corpse. Natalia's corpse. For a moment Ellos simply stared at it, for once in her life not sure what to do or to say. But as the arm bumped against her, Ellos started, broken out of her revere. Irrationally, the only thought on her mind was to prevent Natalia's heart from falling into the hands of the heartless and mindless. Placing her hand on Natalia's shoulder, she pucked from the Charter three marks and wove them into a spell to completely immolate the body so it could not be used to make a heartless. Satisfied Natalia's heart was now safe, she turned, heading for the senate dome. A burning desire for revenge, fueled by regret, made her push onward, towards the home of the one who had killed the only person who had ever looked upon her with innocence.

_I should have killed him when I had the chance_. Ellos thought. She had been too cautious, not following her instincts, because of Natalia. As the ancient saying goes, he who hesitates is a dead motherfucker, and Natalia had paid the price for her hesitation.

Unnoticed by Ellos, from the ashes of Natalia's corpse, from the shoulder where Ellos had touched her, two large, semi-transparent flowers, speckled in rainbow colors, about the size of her hand, bloomed.

_Where one falls, two more shall arise. _

...

Following Ellos, Strife paused, seeing the Forgotten go for the center of the city. _What the hell is she thinking?_ He paused, wondering. His natural curiosity, which had gotten him into as many scrapes as it had gotten him out of, overcame him. Against his better judgment, he followed her, not out of revenge as she did, but curiosity at the minds behind the invasion, their purpose, what they hoped to gain, and what they planned to do, and, more importantly, what Ellos planned to do to them. Whatever it was, it would probably involve pain and discomfort; on their part, not on Ellos'. It might actually be entertaining.

Revenge, curiosity, duty; whatever led them on, Nobody, Endless, and Ellos walked forward, every step sending them forth to the same destination. All roads leading to one place; the frowning watchers whose heads seemed to brush the dome of the sky, the same sky under which they all passed, the same destiny they were all to play a part in.

...

_Strife jumped down into a chasm. Looking up, he saw a line of razor-sharp crystals by the mouth. Reaching up, he broke them off and stored them in his pouch. The tall boy stared at the horizon. It was shade of Ultra-red, which meant dawn was still far off, for the moment. _

_Jumping out of the crevice, he looked around, spotting Ellos' cloak. A year ago that shade of grey would have blended seamlessly into the rock around them, but now the two shades of grey seemed as different in his eyes as red and blue. He'd come a long ways from last year. _

_After examining a rock and finding it held nothing of value, Ellos straightened up, looking for Strife. She was on edge all day, not because of Yul, but because of Strife. Strife had insisted on celebrating something called a 'Birthday'. It was a annual celebration of the day you were born, and you were supposed to exchange gifts and have a party. Ellos hadn't remembered when her own birthday was, so she and Strife decided to have it on the same day. But he seemed to have forgotten. Or maybe he was just trying to surprise her. _

_Seeing him come out of the chasm, she motioned him to come. Stepping carefully over obsidian glass, tall sulfur smokestacks, and patches of half-melted rock, skirting patches of drum sand, geysers, and other obstacles, he slowly made his way over to her. _

"_Do you have the stuff?" _

_Strife looked at the materials in his bag, pulling out and checking his list. "Yes, that's everything. We should be able to make the hilt, now. And Ellos..." _

"_Yeah?"_

_Strife grinned and pulled something from behind his back. "Happy Birthday." _

_It was this weird gadget, made of wood and metal. Turning it around, she looked at it, wondering what the hell it was and what it did. Throwing up his arms in exasperation, he said, "It's a pocket knife. Don't tell me you've never seen one before!"_

_Taking it from her, he showed her how the blade flipped out from the side and how to push it back in place. She nodded and slipped it up her sleeve and thanked him. Pulling her own present out of her pocket, she handed it over to Strife. _

_It was a charm, made from an old metal 7-tipped shrunken, that size of her palm, with a sunstone in the middle and powerful charter marks of protection flowing over the whole thing like oil. It was attached to a chain made of heavy metal links. "You like it?" She asked. _

_Strife grinned and fastened it around his neck. "Yeah. Wow. You've got Charter marks I've never even seen on this thing, they're so powerful. You made it yourself?" _

_Ellos nodded. "Listen, I've got one thing I've got to do. Don't worry, it won't take long and it's in the tunnels. Ok?" _

"_Ok, but we better make it quick. We leave at twilight." Strife said. He had built a small gummi ship from gummi blocks Ellos had manufactured. They where headed for the more habitable ages near where the door to the Present World, which Nobody were known to frequent. _

_Dropping down into a molehole, Ellos and Strife climbed down. Immediately to the left was a huge pile of rubble from where the tunnel had caved in. But Strife realized that rubble was not the only thing there. Three mounds, with rickety metal crosses over them were there. The crosses had no names or dates of birth, only various personal effects draped over them, to distinguish one from the other. _

_Taking out a few green twigs from her coat, the closest thing to a boquet she could find, Ellos reverently placed them on the middle grave, as well as a small, folded piece of paper. It was a inking of Ellos with 3 other kids Strife didn't know; he had seen her working on it many times before. _

_Breaking the silence, Strife asked, "Who were they?" _

"_They were my friends. We grew up together; called ourselves the Table, I don't remember why now. We draw up rules and rites of membership and all sorts of things. We where best friends; you couldn't keep us apart. They were all really weird, but in a good way." As she had done many times, she imagined what her friends would have done had they been here. She closed her eyes, squeezing her fist together. The act of remembering was painful in itself, but she always did it anyways. _

_Liz would have asked her if she was ok, screaming it in her ear with that metal funnel she used as a microphone and carried with her all the time, and then shouting through it for everyone to back off and get aspirin. Kat, with her bubbly-almost-ADD personality, would be bouncing off the walls and dancing irreverently on the graves, offering her own suggestions to Liz, each one more outlandish and impractical than the last. Cameron, the cool cat as always, would grab the diminutive Kat, blushing as she always did in the presence of any boy, and pull her off the graves. Then he would ask what kind of a sorry ass idiot would think to give Ellos aspirin and told her to go get the Roots. Then Kat would ask what aspirin was and send him into a flying rage. _

_That last thought made her smile. _

"_What happened to them?" Strife asked. _

"_We ran into a wounded Nobody when I was about 12." Ellos said. "He killed them all; only I survived, and got the wing. After than, the Roots declared I was 'gifted' and started training me in magic, science, and how to fight. King Mickey came and taught me too, and then I was too busy building the synthesizing machine and researching to make any real friends." At that time, that group of boys started attacking girls, including Ellos. She turned from merely introverted to extremely withdrawn. She'd never had another friend since. _

_And then Strife came. Even though he had his secrets, he was still her friend, the only one she had in this desolate place. His unruly long white hair that he hated, tanned skin, and green-blue eyes of a shade she had never seen before, quiet and gentle like no-one else she had ever met before. Not weak-gentle, but a strong gentle, strong in order survive where everything comforting in a person would be extinguished by the horrors they saw here. He had revived her curiosity of the present world, which she had abandoned and thought dead when her friends had died. And an amazing person, to accomplish what he had done in such a short time. _

"_Strife?" _

"_Yeah?" _

"_Thanks." _

"_For what?" _

"_Just for being there. For being you. Happy Birthday." _

"_Happy Birthday to you too, Ellos." _

...

Adalai- Yeah, it done! Wootage. Finally, I'm able to _post_ it. (stupid failed server...mutters) Next chapter will have lots of Axel, and that thing I can't tell you or else it will ruin the plot. It will be really juicy, that chappie. The chapter afterwards the one after that will be lots of Kairi for the Kairi fans. Now, since the only one I have is Sephy, he'll have to do the exclaimer.

Sephiroth- Remember, if you want to see a character, any character, real or imaginary, do the disclaimer and 'please review' line, just R&R and tell Adalai. Or just R&R. Please?

...

Author's notes

1.) Sensate- the large, flower-shaped organ on the side of an Endless' head. One of it's many uses is the sense things around it, giving it the same kind of sight as a Forgotten, only with a much larger view.

...

_Do not leave us, O God, in darkness. Do not abandon us to the outer darkness and its emptiness. Do not bring us, O Lord, to the place without light, do not close out eyes with its blackness. _

_- The Brotherhood of the Tomb_


	13. Chpt 13: The Sounds of Silence

Lightbringer- Chpt. 13- The Sound of Silence

Adalai- argh! IT'S THE THIRTEENTH CHAPPIE!!! (_grabs garlic and crosses and goes to the church to get an exorcist_) But oddly appropriate for the chappie. Anyway, Sephy, disclaimer!

(_random_ _crashing noises as Adalai rummages through stuff to find her bible_) Latin! We need more Latin!

Sephiroth- Ellos does not own anything. Nuthin', zadda, zip, ziltch. And she never will, because the price tag on Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, ect, is in the millions. Ellos does not have millions.

...

Dawn came to Twilight Town, but precious few were still there to see it. Black clouds and white-blue lightning still covered most of the sky, but in places, the sunrise peaked through. At the sigh of the sunlight, the inhabitants shrank away. They would never look at light again in the same way. They would look upon it with fear of the mindless' power reflected in their eyes. It seemed blasphemy for the sun to ever again shine on this place, ravaged and tainted as it was, defiled with innocent blood. _The land is foul, the water is foul, our beasts and ourselves defiled with blood. A rain of blood has blinded my eyes. _

The early morning sunlight gleamed off navy-blue lenses, set in mirror-like glasses designed to do more than just dampen light. Noticing it out of the corner of it's eye, a flying wyvern swooped downward, looking for it's source. But the person wearing them took them off, replacing them with a pain black blindfold, the familiar feel of rough cloth over her eyes. Not seeing anything more, the wyvern swooped off again.

Outside the magic circle, it was quiet, the people silent with shock, silent lest they not hear what fate has in store for them, unable to affect their own destiny. They had nothing to say about it that they had not already said, in the past night of destruction. They had no choice but to wait, with the certainty of the damned in hell, for their destroyers to come and take their hearts.

_We are soiled by a filth that we cannot clean, united to demons; it is not we alone, it is not the house, it is not the city that is defiled, but the World that is wholly foul. _

...

from the bottom of the largest Icon, a door appeared, stairs extended. Rows upon rows of Heartless and mindless, white upon black upon white, stood, that from a distance blending into a middling grey. Stamping their feet and banging their weapons upon the floor in unison, their number was such that the ground beneath them shook; a testament to their ability to move Ages and shackle Fate. They parted, leaving a path from the door to the Senate. There the leaders of the Twilight System waited and Fate would be decided. They waited nervously, held under heartless guard. Some hoped to negotiate the best possible surrender terms for the system. Others hoped to work with the conquerors, harness the power of the Heartless and Mindless. Others, having seen the heartless before and knowing nothing good could come with fraternizing with them, only wanted to escape. None had conceived what their captors truly wanted.

The looked upon the Icon. The door opened, but no one came out. Then, a figure appeared. A Nobody. Like the figure of myth that he was, he advanced with a sort of reckless confidence of invulnerability that only those already dead could possess, wild red hair flying from his head, burning green eyes, which, unlike normal human eyes, had elegant triangular scars under them. His eyes seemed to shift and swirl, looking like a endless, fluid sea of green, every shade of green reflected off it like the many-hued light from the side of a flawless emerald. That he advanced without any guard, careless of any attempt that might be made on his semblance of life, was not lost on the onlookers. The fear that surrounded him was a palpable thing, pushing back the crowd as he passed.

_Magnificent._ The Second Nobody thought as she appeared, not in the normal black raincoat associated with the Nobody, but in a different coat, less well known but still a Nobody coat, seemingly made of strips of tattered black cloth sown together, with silver and black chains laced through it. _And all mine. _The chains wove downward from the hood, reaching the hem, where they trailed behind her, weaving themselves in a net, black and silver ornaments jangling from them as she descended the steps to stand at her partner's side, brushing the burst of energy from the teleportations of the other Nobody.

She held no formal military rank. She was not particularly a strong Nobody, not had she developed her powers to a great extent; she could not even manifest a mental body, the first rung of personal Nobody ability; yet her attention everyone sought. That she had chosen her Nobody mentor as her partner did not prevent others from trying to get into Lady Axel's favor...and elsewhere. This did not upset Axel; before her rise to power by his side, she had been ignored and looked down upon by those same people, so that even though she might smile warmly at them in public, secretly she reviled and scorned these people. Let them beg at her side with no return; she did not care. But he could understand their continued effort even in the face of her coldness and scorn. Having seen, or more appropriately, been exposed to Lady Axel, most men and even women could do little else in the face of her magnetic, sensual charm, coming off her like radiation from a potent, radioactive chemical. He had just seen this in her before most people did, when both she and he were just low-ranking, new Nobody.

Axel turned to his partner. Lady Axel had been the daughter of a Hispanic woman and a Black man; she had deep, honey colored skin the glowed with a bronze luster and darker olive undertones, dark brown-black eyes touched with gold, flickering like deep black pools or chips of black volcanic glass drawn from the surface of Yul. They where every color of brown, black, auburn, deep gold, bronze, copper, amber, bay, buff, burnt sienna, chestnut, chocolate, coca, coffee, fawn, ginger, hazel, henna, khaki, mahogany, nut, ochre, russet, sepia, sorrel, tan, umber, tawny, burnet, charcoal, ebon, ebony, obsidian, onyx, pitch, raven, sable, and slate imaginable. She had thick, black, tightly wound curls of hair, cut short and pulled back severely in a bun on the nape of her neck. She was short, shorter than Axel, but her thin, pencil-straight and flat figure made her look taller and gave her a look of cultivation, dignity, grace, refinement, and style. She moved with a confident, sensual, covert grace. She looked to be fifteen, maybe sixteen. Her short stature made her look younger than she really was.

He couldn't help but smile at his partner's complete disregard of her place in the procession, slipping with fluent grace by his side and twining around his arm. "Look at it." She said in a low, sensuous tone, passionate with expectation and as self-pleased as a cat with a bowl of cream. "How easy it is. Soon, all the ages will fall and we will be complete. To fulfill the mission we have been given."

He nodded, pleased with her eagerness, the recent victory and absence of his antagonist and co-worker putting him in a lenient mood. "Would you like to come see the surrender?" She smiled at him, a special smile shared only between them, full of honesty and candor and sunny charm. "I would love to." Placing her head on his shoulder, she spoke in the mind whisper only Nobody used when they spoke to each other. _I will always be by your side, even beyond death, my love. Soon, I will stand by your side as an equal and fellow Commander. That is my place, by your side, together till Kingdom Hearts come and whatever lies beyond. _

_I don't, my love. Never. _Raising his head, the doors of the Senate opened before the pair and their entourage. Unfurling from her accustomed and rightful place at Axel's arm, Lady Axel stood behind and slightly to the right, eyes never leaving her Lord, gazing in adoration. The time had come to increase the ranks.

Without any fear of interruption or hesitation, he began to speak. But his voice was not the same as before; it seemed to gain a sort of echo, as if something far more potent and primordial was using Axel as a conduit of it's power, the fervor and assurance drowning all other beliefs from the minds of the listeners like a flood. Imparting the truth upon the base metal of their weak hearts to turn it into something finer, stronger, worthier of the truth received, the Nobody needed no amplification to reach all corners of the room and the minds inside.

"Leaders of Twilight System! Too long has the universe lived without my song, the scream of purification of hearts ignored by the weak and divided! Life is a mistake, deviations from the true order! From the truth! Why, when any heart is born into a human body, must it die? The body sickens and age and impart the same diseases upon the heart? If the heart where meant to live inside a body, why would it's existence in a body cause that body to be destroyed by the ravages of time? For look at the Nobody, who have no hearts, do not age or wither, but live on unchanging, immortal. Endless. Why do our hearts live precariously balanced between darkness and light, with only a feather's push to bring it spiraling into too much darkness, too much light? The true state of the heart lives among us now!"

Axel threw his arms wide, his listeners looked around, unsure as to what he was indicating. Surely he didn't mean...The heartless? The Mindless?

As if on queue, the heartless and mindless around him began to stop their feet up and down. Jagged mouths never meant for speaking, opened and chanted...

_Paradise. Take us to Paradise. To Kingdom Hearts. _

"Yes!" The voice spoke, as a teacher whose deadhead students had finally grasped multiplication. "These are true forms of the heart, purged from their venomous bodies! We are here to correct the mistake of life. And when all hearts, both living and dead, have been converted to their true forms...the Door to Kingdom Hearts will open, and all hearts will return to the place where they first came from. To Paradise."

_Paradise. Take us to Paradise_ the Mindless and Heartless continued to chant, as if their immortal hearts depended on it. It was difficult to tell which was more unsettling; the volume and utter belief at which they thundered this statement, or the unanimity with which they all proclaimed it.

This was certainly not the assembled leaders of Twilight system anticipated hearing. They had expected talk of tribute, or a new governing system. Many from other ages that had been destroyed expected the heartless to simply massacre them when the doors where closed.

"NOW BOW!" Axel spoke. "And receive the truth, for both yourselves and you worlds. Let your people know the truth and the joy of Paradise that shall come after their death. To cast aside the body is a hard, painful decision, full of doubt. But the rewards are greater than anything that could be attained in life."

Hesitantly, the crowd looked at each other, questioning, trying to figure out what to do. Some looked as if they where about to bow, some wore expressions of defiance. But no one was brave enough to break the silence, to voice their opinions.

But Adeliaus, the true senator that he was, was never one to pass up a chance to speak when all others where silent. "You are mad. True, you may have conquered this world, but you cannot expect us to just surrender to these mad claims. Even though you may have all the leaders of Twilight System, you cannot expect to secure the surrender of the whole system! It's not within our power to give such a thing..."

Swiftly, a red specter stepped out of Axel, made of red mist covered inside and out with a net of liquid lightning. Unlike Ellos' astral self, it was a mirror image of Axel, and instead of broiling and constantly changing, it was solid. Racing with unthinkable speed, it reached straight into Adaliaus' chest, ripping out it's heart. Holding it in his hand, he seemed to squeeze it, liquid darkness dripping off it into the floor, coiling there in sable pools. Suddenly, a bright, searing light, complete with white acrid lightning that left a cold iron tang in the mouths of the assembled. It consumed the heart, turning into a long, thin Mindless with one white wing and long, thin claws. It hopped from Axel's side to take it's place in the Mindless ranks, the empty shell vanishing.

One by one, person by person, man and woman, they bowed before him. They had not been defeated by words. They had not been defeated by force. They had been defeated by one mere show of brutal display of mythical power. One cannot deny what has been revealed as true by your own senses. The surrender was final and complete. All of Twilight System bowed down to the greater evil. "See! Deny word, deny force, but you cannot deny what you see with your own eyes."

Scanning the bowed crowd, one person was still standing up, hiding in the shadows with a kind of skill she had only seen in a heartless. Oddly enough, this person hugged the wall as if blind. As the girl came into the light, Lady Axel saw why: she had a black blindfold over her eyes, covering her sight.

"I'm not really with them, you see." Ellos spoke from the shadows. "I can't really deny what I see with my eyes, but then again, I can't deny what I can't see, either. But the truth is I don't care. That not what I'm here for. I'm here for revenge."

"Against who?" Lady Axel asked.

"Not sure. He has long white hair, green glowing eyes, tanned skin, tall." Turning to Axel, she spoke. "Neat trick. Don't suppose you could teach me it, huh?"

Axel rolled his eyes. There was always one. One who refused to submit, to follow. Controlling his temper, he decided to humor the blind girl.

"The one you seek is not a man. He's a Jenova clone, one of the last of the full-blooded Certa."

"Then he won't have any trouble dispatching me."

Axel had never had a very long temper. Ellos had very quickly reached the end of it. He motioned to one of the Nobody. Drawing a battle ax, he crept up to the girl, careful not to make any noise to alert her of his presence. He felt no emotion or anything about her that would give him pause to kill the girl. It was only one target, unarmed. No challenge. In fact, she had something wrong with her eyes, and had to cover them with a strip of cloth; a blind maggot. He was not ashamed to slaughter a helpless girl.

Ellos stood with her hands folded across her back, giving no sign that she had heard his approach. He would make this interesting, making an example from the impertinent blind girl. He'd swing the blade across the neck, decapitating it and sending up an impressive spray of blood. Quick and imposing. He rushed forward, confident because his victim was blind, big, and muscular even for a woman, and therefore slow.

The axed sliced through...empty air. Pivoting on one foot with to great a speed for her size, she simultaneously brought both her gebo out from behind her back. He was in the most defenseless position possible; after and when you attacked with any weapon, you were vulnerable.

Ellos brought both blades down on his neck. First he looked surprised. Then he looked dead. Severed clean through the neck. Sent up an impressive blood spray.

The Senators gasped. The Nobody looked at the blind girl, disbelieving. They grabbed their weapons and started forward, intent on killing the viper in their den now that it had revealed it's true self. Seeing they weren't going to lead her to her man, she turned and began to stride out the Senate buildings. Suddenly, she felt another person teleport into the room, booming a single word.

"STAY."

...

Ellos stopped but did not turn. She waited for the figure to come to her, unafraid of any attack from her unprotected back. The approaching figure noticed this and its purpose; this woman, whoever she was, was not afraid. She knew how to handle herself if something happened. The figure stopped and looked her up and down, measuring and sizing her up. Ellos turned around slowly and did the same to him.

The speaker was a man, wrapped in belts and black and red bandages. One eye was covered with the buckle of a belt, the other was heartless yellow, but with the same glow she had seen in the white haired man's eyes. He was sitting in a wheelchair, pushed by a Nobody, the cowl pushed down, hiding it's face. But she could see the yellow glow of a heartless eye peaking from under the hem as it moved.

"He was fully trained, one of my best."

Ellos shrugged.

"You're a Forgotten, aren't you?" the figure asked.

Ellos merely shrugged again. "If you say so."

If bandages had not covered his mouth, he would have smiled. "Quite rare. To turn a man's strength into his weakness. That's a quality usually only found in machines and Nobody. Not humans."

He looked at her. Tall and slim, limbs that looked too long for her body, strong, toned muscles, an excellent figure that was just curvy enough while still being trim and thin, with thin, delicately formed hands and slender, long, tapering fingers and good bone structure on her face and body. She had the movements of a heartless, but instead of being jerky, she had a mercurial, smooth grace, now that she had abandoned the blind farce. She had long, waist-length hair an unusual and rare shade of ash brown, framing a narrow, oval face, with delicate, defined cheekbones and jaw, long and slightly sharp features. Basically, she was beautiful. And oddly familiar.

"It's been a long time since the word 'beautiful' entered my mind. And never about a woman."

Ellos said nothing. "What's your name?"

"Ellos."

"Ellos. You seem familiar to me, for some reason."

"I don't remember you. I think I would remember someone like you."

"I think I would too. There's an inkling of something I can't shake. You remind me of someone. An enemy close to me. I can't shake it, but I can place it either. In my business, I can't have ambiance."

"If you say so." She spoke, in the same rich, melodious voice, a tone and cadence like that of a song. It was high and lilting, a soprano but lower, more melodious than normal , with a rich, deep alto undertone which mellowed and softened the voice, adding emotion to it and a depth and range of tone and sound. Beautiful to listen to.

"Bring her before Sephiroth."

...

Ellos was instantly surrounded by Nobody, tension high in the air.

"Please, please." A woman came forth form the circle, about 15-16 years old. She had dark skin, brown-black eyes, thin, short, with dark black-brown curls pulled severely back in a tight bun. "Maybe she would come if you just asked."

Pulling Ellos to her side, whispering in her ear cattily, like they where both best friends sharing a particularly juicy piece of gossip. "Men. They just don't know how to behave themselves around two gorgeous girls like us." She whispered, envious of Ellos' figure, so much shapelier and taller than her own short, pencil-shaped figure. "It's a rare offer to fight Sephiroth. You should be honored. I just hope you know what you're doing."

Ellos didn't respond. They emerged form the Senate building, Lady Axel with her head held high and the dignity of a visiting queen and Ellos by her side, slinking along by her side like a heartless, but with her liquid, quicksilver grace. It looked like a child leading along a lion by it's paw.

...

"And this is the main room on the Nobody portion of the ship." Lady Axel said. "Lovely, isn't it?"

Ellos looked around. It was completely done up, like the rest of the ship, in white and black. Everything was white and black, here, with very little decoration except in places where they wanted it to impress people, and then, it was a dark, baroque style of art, all strait, stern lines and too heavy on exaggerated detail for Ellos' taste. "I would have gone with something a little more colorful." She said.

Lady Axel liked the darkly baroque style of architecture, but decided to humor her guest. "Other parts are more colorful."

Ellos nodded, guided into a side room from the main one by Lady Axel. This one was exclusively black, greenish light coming from a crystal in the center of a network of branches carved into the stone in the ceiling. The rest of the room was decorated in a less extravagant, more art nouveau-ish style of décor, with balconies covered with screens in the top half of the room. Standing in the center of the room, she looked at crystal, wondering as to what its purpose was.

Lady Axel stood at the door of the room. "Try not to resist. It only makes the damage greater. And Ansem wants you whole." She shut the door and slid the heavy iron bolt shut.

Ellos assumed a battle stance, not surprised but only mildly miffed at the fact that she had been careless enough to be led here. What really worried her was what Lady Axel had meant when she spoke of not resisting and who the hell Ansem was.

_She meant don't resist when I look inside your mind. He wants to know why you are familiar to him, but he also wants you whole, as a warrior to the cause, among other things._

Suddenly Ellos lost control of her body. She tried to move, but just stood stock still, unable to do anything.

Then she saw a man emerge form the crystal, eyes glowing the same color that the crystal gave off. He leaped down, standing in front of Ellos.

_Now my little puppet_, he said, _Let's see what's inside that mind of yours. _

...

Ellos gasped and would have flinched if she still had control of her body. Finally inside the woman's mind, Sephiroth prowled around in her thoughts, searching for something, anything of interest.

_You take too many chances. You may be more than human, but Riona is not. I don't trust you to remember that. Not with the one person I love the most. And even if they did survive, what kind of life would she lead with you? Constant wandering, fighting to survive, no home or family, forgetting a piece of yourself day by day?_

Ellos shivered slightly, recalling the scene with Leon and Riona, a vexing wound not yet healed over. Disappointed, Sephiroth dug deeper, coming across Ellos' memories of the past few days.

"_We've forgotten the true story over time, but we still remember it; Adam and Eve, Pandora's box, the story of the Keyblades, Kairi's story. _

_Stories of mankind's first sin. _

Intriged at the mention of Sora, who he remembered well from their fight in the coliseum, Sephiroth pushed hard, capturing that memory and pulling it into closer scrutiny. He had to be careful now; the closer inward you got, the more chance of damage. So while he searched he mind, he also moderated his intrusion.

Ellos struggled with him mentally, trying to find a way, any way, to throw him off our drive him out of her mind.

Ansem, connected to Sephiroth by a link between their similar minds, also recognized the name of Sora.

_Thinking of escape now. _Sephiroth spoke to Ansem. _A unique mind, but a still a human mind, organic, unable to hide from us. Looking for an opening, patient..._

_Regress. _Ansem said. _Reposition. We'll go back to Sora later. We need to know how she's connected to him. Seek a clarification. Seek **link. **But be gentle. _

Sephiroth drew back, bringing out other memories.

"_Ellos, you lived in Kingdom Hearts. Tell me...did you ever come across someone called Riku?"_

"_Nope. Why do you ask?" _

_And the Endless Worlds. Ellos stopped. She didn't want to talk about that dream she had last night._

_New mindscape. _Sephiroth said, pausing. _About Endless. Something about a dream. _

...

Lady Axel studied the man seated on the wheelchair across from them. She spoke to Axel, using a mind-whisper. _Curious. The way he's looking at her. Unusually intense. Have you ever seen him look at another in that way? _

_What way is that? _

_Nothing. _She spoke. The look on Ansem's face was almost that of affection. Odd.

...

"_I you kill him, then you'll never know why we brought you here." _

"_I already know. You want me to find this Sora character." _

"_Yes, but there are other people who could just as easily track him down, using heart entanglement. There is much more at stake than such trivialities as bounties and revenge." _

"_Then start explaining. I'm tired of being kept in the dark." _

"_What do you know about your childhood, Ellos? Before you came to Kingdom Hearts? Your family? Your parents? Your ancestry? Your upbringing? _

"_Do you remember your home age? It's appearance, location? It's people; your people? Why your family abandoned you in Kingdom Hearts? What happened to it?" _

"_have you met any others?" Scion said with urgency. _

"_Others like yourself? Cousins, siblings?" the second Nobody said. _

"_My people didn't even know what to do with one of me. They threw me into Kingdom Hearts before I could walk. What makes you think there are others?"_

Sephiroth paused. Why was this girl of such importance to the Nobody? Struggling, he pressed onward. Ellos' resistance was becoming more and more marked. It was becoming difficult to focus.

"_Ellos, if you tell me you could have taken them down by yourself, I will break your legs and leave you for the heartless."_

"_Well, I suppose that's an answer." _

"_Let me go. Why? Why a Nobody? Why one of them? Why these stupid games, this messing with people's lives, hiding you identity from me like this? Why bring me?"_

_Strife let go and spoke, sadness in his voice at the sight of Ellos' hurt. "Would you believe...I'm trying to do the right thing, for all the wrong reasons? Would you believe that I was a Nobody even before I met you?"_

_Strife turned, walking back towards the Bell Tower, shoulders slumped. He always walked like that when he didn't think anyone was looking; like he was carrying some terrible burden of guilt for a sin which he was afraid of being forgiven. _

_Better than doing the wrong thing, for all the right reasons. _

Ansem paused. He knew this 'Strife' character; it was Riku. It appeared that he hadn't told Ellos about his involvement with the heartless and Ansem. And he was apparently a Nobody now, and working with them.

_Except for one. Hanging on from the hand's thumb, was one of the creatures, in the form of a young women, only a few years old than Ellos, with vivid green eyes and gray skin and black hair. Screaming for revenge. Screaming against the End which had destroyed her home. Screaming against the Nobody, who had abandoned them to their fate. Screaming, Screaming..._

Sephiroth managed to catch just the end of the dream. He knew that woman. So did Ansem.

_What is this place? _

_This is the answer you've been looking for. _

_This is the worlds as we meant them to be. A place so strange it must be called by another name than age. Call it what could have been instead. This is the world in its true form. _

_Who are you? What are you trying to tell me? _

_We are Endless. And we are not trying to tell you anything. We only seek for you to understand._

Endless seemed to be a reoccurring theme in these dreams of hers. He wondered briefly why.

_She was not alone. _

"_I though your face would look more familiar. The chin and nose are different; they must have been broken and healed differently, when you were in Kingdom Hearts. Less heart-shaped, more finely and noticeably sculpted, the cheekbones more prominent; from your father. The face isn't the right color; the features lengthened and sharpened, the face too narrow and long; Marfan's syndrome. Your face is too lean, too; it doesn't have enough flesh to fill it out. No, there is almost no resemblance. But that is what Kingdom Hearts does to one, does it not? Makes you forget the past, physically and mentally. You eyes..." _

_The woman paused, waiting for Ellos to take off her glasses. When she realized Ellos wasn't going to cooperate, she gave a snort of disapproval and continued. _

"_Think of this as a dream, if you must. Until you know better."_

"_And once you know, you will never forget." _

He was sure of the identity of this woman, now. But what her connection was with Ellos, he couldn't fathom. What didn't make sense was that these memories where of things from Ellos' youth, and shouldn't be this clearly remembered. Some of her memories where of things that happened _before_ Ellos was born; so how did she have dreams about them?

_Go back. _Ansem said. _Not hours or days, but years back. Find out why she remembers these things. _

Sephiroth nodded. He pulled himself downward, using memories as ladder rungs on an ever-spiraling path downward. As he went deeper, her memories became more patchy, disconnected, and disjointed. Like she had forgotten things and patched them over with other, made up memories to give a sort of sense to her life. Finally, around the age of 7, he hit what was the mental equivalent of a brick wall. Confused, he felt it mentally, trying to get around it. It separated her unconscious and a large part of her conscious from the rest of her mind. The mind beyond it seemed ancient and powerful, not like that of a 19 year old girl, but something more complex and alien.

Ellos winced even more. That was a door she didn't want to unlock. Only bad things could come from it. She fought Sephiroth as hard as she could, but she was not going to be allowed privacy of herself. Sephiroth's question thoughts ripped at tore at her past, until the door between human and ancient gave way.

Sephiroth only saw darkness. And then he saw something come out of that darkness, that emptiness. A third person. _The _third person.

_A third enemy; Nobody._

_Change; the third key. _

_Point Three; Paradise. _

_What is this place? _

_The End of the World_

_This is the answer you've been searching for. _

_This is the world in it's true form. _

_Maybe our journey meant nothing after all. _

_The world of darkness _

_The world of light. _

_And, the world in-between _

_A creation born of ignorance. _

_Behind the Darkness (does not equal) Door to the Light. _

_A world between = A forgotten World. _

_An existence neither of darkness or of light. _

_An in-between existence. _

_A power other than darkness; Light, darkness, a third power..._

_In her heart, lie memories of us_

_Memories...they are growing...don't you think? _

_My name is Axel. Commit it to memory. _

_This mystery cannot be easily solved. _

_However, the importance of the future will be written with your hand_

_You will forget everything you knew and will have to search for it again. _

_It must be hard...being trapped for such a long time_

_Well done, you don't give up that easily! _

_A fragmented Tale. _

_You are not complete. _

_In your present state, you probably cannot understand. _

_That door, through which we cannot pass... _

_Here for that purpose..._

_Maybe it has already begun. _

_One destiny. _

_Maybe it was fate. _

...

Abruptly, Ellos' eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed, slumping forward.

Panicked, Ansem spoke to Sephiroth. _Bring her back. there is too much I need to know_. His restless curiousity getting the better of him. _Where did she come from? Her family? Her home age? What her connection to Sora, to Riku, to the Endless, to the Nobody? _

Ansem paused. Sephiroth wasn't answering him. Something was wrong.

_Something new. _Sephiroth said, uneasily. _Feedback. Coming forth. _The disquiet in his voice grew. _Need to stop. Stop the feedback before...before...something terrible comes out. _

_Keep her out. Keep her out of me! Keep her away from me! Just keep her..._

Ansem paused. This could not be happening. Ellos was reading Sephiroth's mind.

_Kill the Nobody. Kill the Endless. Kill Ellos!! KILL HER! KILL HER!_

Sephiroth was jerking back and forth, face contorting, mouth wide, eyes empty. In an instinctual reaction, he withdrew his mind completely from Ellos. She shuddered and lifted herself up, shaking as her mind reconnected with her body.

Sephiroth also stood, drawing his sword. To hell with Ansem. He would kill the Forgotten.

...

_After _

_The heartless above tucked it's limbs into it's side, falling faster to catch up with her. Mouth open wide, it bore down on Ellos, ready to swallow her with one gulp. Ellos drew her S-shaped weapons, getting ready for it's approach. _

_The monster came at her, only inches away from her foot. Levering herself up, she slashed at it's head, stabbing into it's eyes. The heartless howled in pain. _

_Throwing her legs and arms out the slow down her descent, she stabbed at its sides and back until it dissolved into black mist. She plunged her weapon into the released heart, the blade absorbing it. She could extract the Nobody heart latter. _

_She felt herself connect sharply with something solid, knocking the wind out of her. Getting up on it's slightly slippery surface, she realized that Strife had caught her using the gummi ship they had made. She opened the hatch and slipped inside. _

"_You okay?" Strife asked. _

"_Fine. A little winded, that's all." _

"_Good. Do you have it?" _

_Ellos nodded. She placed her hand along the flat of the blade, feeling the heart contained within, still a Nobody heart despite having been consumed by a Heartless. It would work. But the blade would be a heartless blade once it was made. _

_Strife sighed and drove onward, back to Yul._

...

Adalai- wootage! Done. (_finishes with a florish_) the second when Sephiroth is inside the deepest part of Ellos' mind is from the thirteen points, CoM translations, script for the extra scenes in Final Mis, and Ansem reports. And now...

Sephiroth- Yah! I chappie about me! All me! R&R about it!

...

_"The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls. And tenement halls." And whisper'd in the sounds of silence. _

_-_ Paul Simons, _The Sound of Silence_


	14. Chpt 14: The Wells of Darkness

Lightbringer- Chpt. 14: The Wells of Darkness

Adalai- Ok, finally I get up off my cantankerous ass and write the battle chappie between Ellos and Sephiroth. I won't lie to you, my readers; my muses did not leave me (Stinky's so fat he couldn't leave if he tried.) I just wasn't in the writing mood. In other words, I was being lazy. I'm always lazy, but I do not always _act_ lazy, usually because I'm too lazy to act lazy. I'm so lazy I'm active. Just don't ask me to exercise.

Dante, Zena, and Stinky- WTH? We didn't understand a word you just said.

Adalai- Neither did I. Sephiroth, disclaimer!

Sephiroth- If you haven't figured out that Adalai does not own anything, then you are really stupid. Like, little brother stupid. Stupid!

* * *

Sephiroth swung his masume at Ellos, intending to catch her unawares while still dazed. But Ellos recovered too quickly and brought her white angel wing Gebo up with her left hand to block. The indentions in the blade under her gun reformed, caving in 2 inches deep and curling into hook-teeth, their purpose similar to that of a medieval swordbreaker dagger (1); the teeth would cut into the edges of the blade, catching the sword blade of an opponent, frequently breaking it entirely. 

Ellos had grown used to such transformations in the blades. Surprised, Sephiroth freed his sword by backing away from Ellos, sliding it out of the indention sideways. The teeth left several deep gashes in the metal. It also gave her enough room to use her Gebo effectively; one of the drawbacks was, though it had a longer reach, you needed more room to maneuver than a sword.

"Endless blades." Sephiroth remarked. "I should have seen that coming. Living metal and wood, they evolve and changed as need suits them. Like their wielders." Ellos drew her other blade, the bat-winged one. She twirled it expertly, admiring the detail and complexity of it, both in design and detail. Perfectly balanced and adjusted to her hand, it seemed to sing, sound coming from it that was more than just a normal swish of blade through air; almost like voices. She shifted it into a guard position; the edges flattened and sharpened, the points of the wing extending and thickening to become razor sharp. Ready to main and tear and feast on blood.

Constantly twirling the blades to keep up momentum when she wasn't attacking, Ellos feel the deep groves of the handles conform to her moving fingers and the weapon pulse against her fingers like a heartbeat. Using sword technique, She brought the black blade down on Sephiroth's head, who blocked with a high block over his head. His hands full, she swung the white blade to his side, but he blocked it with the outside of his arm, drawing blood. Kicking Ellos away, he disappeared with a flash of dark energy.

But Ellos, using her unique sight, was able to locate him when he materialized and was ready.

Thus, they were evenly matched. Sephiroth couldn't defend against two weapons with only one sword, so he teleported to avoid it. Ellos couldn't get at him because he teleported, but he couldn't sneak up on her with his teleportation, because her sight allowed her to see tell-tale energy signs emanating from where she knew he was going to appear. So, Ellos tried to confuse him; shifting techniques constantly, searching for a form of fighting he was unfamiliar with. That was one of the strengths of her weapon; it was a hybrid of many different types of weapons, and could fight as such. She started with sword technique, then as a staff, a spear, as an axe, a throwing lance, using her attack similar to a strike raid, and other times as some other, completely knew technique, using completely new moves that utilized all parts of the weapons.

It was changing subtly to face it's attacker; It became longer, thinner, and stronger, the material developing small holes and bubbles inside to make the blades lighter, the spikes thinner and more pointed. It had always been special in a way, making her wonder is her blades had some kind of heart. But it merely acted like a regular weapon, throwing off different bursts of magic and energy as it felt the situation warranted, parts moving on their own and sending jolts to throw off and damage Sephiroth's blade every time it parried. Every movement, every hit, brought forth a new harmonious note from the thing, blending together in a song.

In direct disregard for conventional fighting common sense, it got easier, not harder, to fight. As if his blade remembers and analyzed the weaknesses of it's opponent, finding ways to best hurt him and get through his guard and passing the information to her subconsciously.

Twirling the black blade once and bringing it over her head, she rushed at him, slashing downward and to the side over him. He blocked it with his sword and, remembering the trick she had pulled, drew his fist back to punch her and wind her before she could attack his side.

BAM!

_Shit. I forgot the gun. _Sephiroth thought, unable to fully dodge the blast but managing to twist enough aside to avoid it hitting anything vital.

The bullet should have missed him completely, but Ellos' bullets where not like normal bullets. She made her own, and the ones she had loaded where a particularly nasty kind. They where modeled after STX bullets; core of soft lead, tiny compartment inside filled with nitro, covered in a bronze-like metal outer shell, stainless steel jacket and copper-plated metal nose-cap, screw threads acid-gorged though the metal nose-cap. When fired, the metal jacket slipped off, 6 2-inch blades extended outwards. When the nose-cap hit flesh, it would split into 6 sharp hooks, pushing the lead contained forward, which would then expand and flatten, spreading the force of the shock over as wide an area of the body as possible and releasing whatever was in the compartment inside.

Ellos may have missed him- but the knives didn't. They cut two 2-inch deep gashes in his side. The bullet hit the wall and the nitro blew open a large hole, stone chips flying from the crevice.

Having enough, he teleported away to the far corner of the room. Both warriors began to chant spells.

(_Hi! Ni! Ya! Behold the man of flint, that's me!_) Ellos chanted in an ancient language, weaving charter marks and other types of magic into the words, sunstone flashing. (_Four lightnings zigzag from me, strike and return._) (2)White, red, yellow, and black lightning bolts flew over both blades.

Sephiroth used Sin Harvest. It spread out, a red wave of energy over the floor, red pillars smacking into the ground from the ceiling. Ellos waited, jumping when it hit her so that it caused the least amount of damage. Even so, it completely drained her elemental magic abilities temporarily. One of the red energy pillars headed straight for her. Stabbing the white gebo into the ground, she brought the bat-winged one up in a two handed block, hands on the spiked crescents. The pillar hit the gebo, red lightning streaming up into a shield over Ellos. Black lightning hit the red wave on the ground, neutralizing it. White lightning hit the pillars, making them disappear. All three lightnings returned to the gebo, and then the last one, yellow lightning, flew forward to strike at...empty air.

Ellos cursed herself, just as Sephiroth teleported behind her, looping an arm around her neck and cutting off her air. Ellos felt something cold and hard piece her back, and saw the blade of his sword protrude out the front of her chest.

* * *

But Ellos' heart hadn't stopped. Even with a sword through her chest, it still continued to beat normally, as if nothing had happened, bleeding from her chest and sending small jerks up the masumune as it moved up and down with her heartbeat. Both stood still in shock. Sephiroth was the first to recover. Reaching up, he grabbed her cheek and started to twist her head to the side, Ellos straining against his grip. 

He was going to snap her neck.

Reacting on instinct, Ellos unfurled her wing from her back, the force of it yanking the masumune painfully out of her chest and throwing Sephiroth back several feet, just out of reach of her Gebo. She grabbed a potion pill, cracking it above her head with her left and at the same time swinging at Sephiroth with the bat-wing blade (I'm imagining this in my head, one hand sprinkling dust over her head and the other attacking, and yea gods, it is hilarious.)

The blade looked as if it where going to miss him. It seemed to pause somehow in mid-air, thinking, and then the three sections of the bat wing blade and the spiked crescent blade, separated by the wing's spines, came apart, connected by a chain and acting as a whip-sword, twining around Sephiroth's waist, the chain then self-shortening and pulling the pieces of the sword blades, long, stretched out and slightly curved, in a solid ring around his middle, crescent blade digging into his side and keeping the rest of the blade in place. Ellos gave it a vicious tug, intending to slice him in half, only to have him teleport away again.

Using the temporary lull to grab an either, a liquid one in a jar and drank it (3), replenishing her MP. Then she raced over to where she knew Sephiroth would reemerge.

He appeared again, this time wrapped in a pillar of Flame, protecting him from Ellos. Or so he thought. Ellos grabbed the white Gebo from where she had stuck it in the ground and threw it in a sweeping arch at Sephiroth, catching it as it came back. He drew back in time to only receive a shallow cut across the abdomen. "It appears that you have done the most damage to me this round." Sephiroth stated. "Even if I did impale you through the heart. But just because you can cause me more damage, doesn't mean you will be able to kill me. That requires a certain type of darkness. A 'good' darkness, if you will. A darkness born from light; not lack of it. The darkness in which the true light sleeps, the shadow cast by the light; protecting it, not seeking to consume it."

Ellos knew what he was talking about. "The darkness of Kingdom Hearts."

"Your filled with it. Took me long enough time to figure out the ridiculous riddles of that Endless, Maleficent. She said that Ansem and I would grow so powerful we could only be killed by a Forgotten born of Jenova. You're saturated by that energy. But you have no way of channeling it." He grinned. "So I'm not really worried. After all, damage to the body can be healed easily. As long as my heart survives, I can always build another body." He grinned, casting cure on himself. Just as Ellos wanted him to.

Sephiroth felt the spell take away the various cuts and wounds accumulated from the battle. But the cut on his stomach sent a stab of pain through him, starting to throb with a non-physical pain, deepening and widening. It glowed Red, white, black, and yellow. He growled and cast Sin Harvest on Ellos. She stood calmly as a red light started to form over her head. Then a sharp, head-splitting pain came from the wound, which had opened and begun to bleed. The red light above Ellos' head broke apart in red, white, black, and yellow lightning. He tried to cast it again, and failed. Not even so much as a spark.

Ellos grinned. "You like it? My own invention, that spell. Though it might come in handy. As long as you don't cast any sort of magic on yourself, including potions, the wound won't deepen any. If you do, well, it will only take one more cast to make it deep enough to kill. It may not get your heart, but having to make a whole new body will be a pain in the ass. And I'll win this fight."

But he did have his Jenova abilities. That was magic, so it wasn't blocked by the spell. Sephiroth still had a few tricks up his sleeve.

He dived at Ellos, in a frenzy of standing and leaping blows, too fast for a normal human to follow, much less block. Unprepared for the onslaught, she crossed the gebo in front of her, but Sephiroth managed to get through her guard. When she fell, he grabbed her wrist and twisted it, dislocating the joint. "Stop holding back!" He hissed.

"Only if you stop too." Ellos said, kicking him in the knee, dislocating it and sliding away from her. She twisted her arm and wrist in a position not attainable by humans with normal joints, relocating her wrist.

_Cantankerous double-jointed shrew. _Sephiroth thought, repositioning his own joint.

He teleported behind her and brought it down on Ellos' back before she could turn. But instead of meeting flesh, it met specter.

Leaning out from Ellos' back was her astral self, raptor-like claws clutched around the blade, grinning evilly with a too-large smile filled with long, thin, needle-like teeth. Ellos turned around, specter merging into her flesh as her batwing gebo extended into it's whip-like self, twining around his legs and cutting his flesh. Pulling, she toppled him to his feet, only to have him slash her across the legs with his masumune. She collapsed, legs cut straight through the bone, unable to get up. Sephiroth took his chance. He still had the Meteor materia, and since it was a magic object, it didn't count as a spell. He began to glow white, meteors forming around him and forming into one big one, which hit Ellos. Black stone from the room rained down on her, the crystal from the top and the roots surrounding it collapsing on her, crystal shattering.

_And that's the end of her._ Sephiroth thought. Pity, he was beginning to enjoy himself, having an opponent that could actually stand up to him for once, not weak little girls running away from him and being a pain in the neck.

"Come on, you." Ellos weezed, shaking off bits and pieces of stone, wood and crystal. "You can do better than that; big warrior like yourself." She was dusty, had several broken limbs and ribs, covered in cuts and bruises, nearly dead, but she was still alive and moving. Long, jagged pieces of crystal where embedded in her flesh, contaminating her blood with Mako energy and Jenova cells. She shuddered, face pale, the effects of Mako poisoning and hostile alien cells already taking its toll.

"Why...will...you...not...DIE!" He yelled at Ellos, who was using one of her gebo as a crutch.

"Why won't you?" Ellos said, leaning against the wall, breathless. Arms found their way around her throat, spiked wheels digging into her neck, crystal shards digging deeper into her back, increasing the flow of Mako and Jenova cells into her bloodstream.

"Because I won't let him." Axel said, grinning maliciously, head passing though the crevice in the wall created by Ellos' bullet. Ellos' fingers scrabbled on the spikes and around the death-choke of her attacker. Her fingers sliced open on the blades and slid off the wheels, slick with blood. She couldn't breathe though Axel's grip on her throat. One wrong move and those wheels would slit her jugular. Her heart might be able to still beat after being pieced with a sword, but she doubted she could live without blood. "Just for the record, so you know who beat you." He snarled viciously. "My name's Axel. Commit it to memory."

Ellos stopped struggling. That line, and that name, had stirred a twinge of deja-vu. He tightened his hands on his wind and fire wheels, preparing to cut her throat.

"Stop." Ansem spoke from behind him, pushed forward by his glowing-eyed attendant. "She's of no use to us dead."

Axel frowned, mad at being ordered around by Ansem. He was his equal, not his superior; where did he get off ordering him around! Ellos slumped against Axel, finally going unconscious due to blood loss, injuries, trauma, and Mako and Jenova cell poisoning.

"A Forgotten could be useful around here." Ansem spoke, calm and uncaring on the outside but desperate on the inside.

_A Forgotten..._Axel thought. _She said that Ansem and I would grow so powerful we could only be killed by a Forgotten born of Jenova..._Suddenly a plan formed in his mind. He could use this girl to his advantage; if what the Endless said was true, held in his hands, literally, the key to Ansem's demise. Ellos may have been born of a Certa; even if she wasn't, perhaps that reference meant someone heavy infected with Jenova cells, as Ellos had certainly been. It wouldn't be hard to provide her with what she needed to channel the dark energy from Kingdom Hearts.

"True." Axel spoke. "But I get to keep her." Not waiting for Ansem's response, he opened a portal in the ground, the darkness in it twining up Ellos' legs and completely covering her, pulling her down to wherever the portal lead to.

Sephiroth disappeared as well, teleporting away. Alex left, Lady Axel close by his side. Leaving Ansem all alone with his thoughts. Well, almost. Malachi didn't really count, Ansem mused, looking at the glowing-eyed creature by his side.

* * *

Axel was mad. You could almost see steam coming from his eyes and nose. Of course, that didn't bother Lady Axel. She liked a challenge. Draping over his arm again, she proceeded to calm his temper the only way she knew how; distraction. It was a good thing the stretch of corridors to their rooms where relatively dark and deserted. 

At first cold to her advances, he suddenly grabbed her around her waist and flipped her over, kissing her hard on the mouth. She giggled, trying to catch her breath.

"Do you think we'll make it to the rooms with all our clothes on this time?" She said, trailing off seductively.

"There's always a first time."

"Animal." She said, grinning. "What's got you in such a great mood?"

Axel opened his mouth to speak, and then caught something in the corner of his eye. A group of Shells had wandered by, their faces obscured by the cowls of their raincoats. But one had stopped in the middle of the crowd, looking at him. It was Sora. His hair was blonde and cut short, but it was him. But by the time Axel turned around, he was gone. He shook his head. He must be imagining things.

"Did you see...him?" Lady Axel said, clearly shaken. She had seen the same thing as he had- he had not imagined it.

Romance forgotten, both of them headed off to their rooms. They needed to talk through this, figure out what was going on.

* * *

"Hey Kairi." 

"Whu...What? Lego mi blankie, Sel...Zzzzzzzz..."

"Wakey-Wakey tiiimmmeeee..."

"Go away, Tifa...Zzzzzz..."

"You leave me no other alternative...and I thank you for it..." Tifa said. Scooting Kairi over, she gingerly placed her head and shoulders so it hung down between the bars of the kennel, right above the muzzle of a Mindless hound. It jumped up and growled at frustration at the tasty morsel, so close and yet so far away.

At the growl, Kairi woke up. Screaming, she swung up, only to hit her head on one of the bars. Chuckling, Tifa helped her up. "Don't ever do that again, Tifa!" Kairi screamed, one hand over her heart. Seeing Tifa chuckle, she added "That wasn't funny!"

That only made Tifa laugh more, clutching her chest. The noise woke the other occupant of the room, a girl in a yellow thing that looked kind of like a pair of tight overalls, and a peasant top. She looked almost exactly like a younger version of Tifa, but with dark brown, almost black eyes, instead of burnt sienna, and with shorter, darker hair. She had introduced herself as Dagger and they had left it at that. They were a lot of people who didn't like to talk about their pasts, here.

"Leave her alone, Tifa." Dagger said tiredly, not wanting to get dragged in the middle of those two. The third inhabitant of their cell, Yuna, having been woken up by Tifa and Kairi's little row, stood up, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"She started it!" both girls said simultaneously, pointing fingers at each other. Dagger massaged her temples as she spoke. "Tifa, you will not wake Kairi up like that again. Kairi, you will be nicer to Tifa in the morning. And you will both get along." Dagger said. Then, as an afterthought, she added "Or else." It really didn't sound convincing. She had never been good at threatening. That was Zidane's specialty.

Speaking of Zidane, she saw him stick his head out the kennel 5 cages down from them, looking around. Spotting Dagger, he waved, grin on his face and tail swishing smugly.

_I wonder what's made him so smug..._Dagger thought, smiling. Yuna came up behind her, looking over her shoulder at Zidane's antics. "The guards threw someone in with the guys." She said. "I don't know who it is, though."

"Well, whatever it is, it's not female." Tifa said. "I don't hear Irving feeding it one-liners in that irritating southern drawl of his."

"What the #$% are you doing waking me up in this time in the morning! I'm going to shove that cowboy hat down your $%&ing throat!"

"Irving's up." Tifa said. "And so's Barret."

"Which can only mean..." Dagger said. There was a flash of black lightning. "Vivi's up too." It never ceased to amaze her how the diminutive, quiet black mage could be so grouchy in the morning. Not usually as violent as to throw lightning, but Irving had bullied him into downing 7 shots of hard liquor last night. And hangovers did nothing for a sunny personality.

"Thank god Sir Rust-a-lot isn't in the same cell as Zidane, we can't keep them off each other." Yuna said, a touch of exasperation showing in her voice at the thought of those two's fights.

"Hey Dagger!" Zidane called. "Anybody in your cell know someone called Tidus?"

"YES!!!" Both Kairi and Yuna called, crowding up to see him. _How in the hell did he escape? _Kairi thought. Both ran out the kennel onto the platforms in front of the cages. Startled by the noise, the various demons, devils, and half breeds, collected from worlds and used as guards in the prison, looked up at the noise before resuming...whatever it was that they do.

Zidane stepped back, opening the door and giving a mock bow to Tidus, who was stepping out of the door, frowning at Zidane's antics. Seeing Kairi, he ran over and hugged her, leaving Yuna feeling left out and little jealous.

"I was so worried that you'd died." Tidus said, after she broke the hug. "What happened?"

"Me and Tifa got attacked by this guy in a black raincoat. Next thing we knew, we were here."

Tidus felt someone tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he found himself staring into the eyes of a tall woman with shoulder-length brown hair, flipped up, and a hair wrap. She had unusual eyes; one blue, one green. She looked familiar, somehow, even if he had never seen her before in his life.

"Do I ...know you?" He asked.

Kairi looked around. The others seemed to be waiting for something. Looking at Tidus as if they expected him to do something.

Tidus only looked at Yuna. She had this strange look on her face. Almost like she was disappointed, maybe because he looked like someone she knew and had hoped it was him. Also, this look of vain, desperate hope, and heartbreak. He saw that look on Selphie when this guy gave her his number at a party and when she met him latter and he acted like he didn't know her. Like she though he was his boyfriend but was just acting like he didn't know her.

_His girlfriend..._he'd never really had a girlfriend; he'd gone out plenty, but never had a real relationship. The girls he'd seen never really seemed to fit. Didn't he?

Suddenly Tidus' eyes rolled in the back of his head and he fell backwards, unconscious. The others seemed to be expecting this; no one panicked, and Barret caught him as he fell.

"Is he going to be ok?" Kairi asked timidly, worry in her voice. Barret answered in his deep baritone. "Yeah. We all did this, when we encountered someone from our other lives." Kairi looked at him, still puzzled. "Oh. Yeah, you don't know. Well, it all started like this..."

* * *

_Ellos sighed, taking a breather from work. The Keyblade wouldn't be complete for another 6 months. Right now, no spells where needed, so Strife was forging the body of the Keyblade, and told her he would get her if he needed her. So here she was. _

_Ellos flipped open a book and began to read. It was an interesting book, called _Prey_ by Michael Criton. It was all about nanotechnology, and it was very interesting. She'd barely been able to put it down. Flipping through the pages- Ellos was a fast reader- she looked up, distracted by something. A sound from above. _

_Ellos looked up. The metal ceiling of the Shelter was beginning to move. The screws where working, pushing the tower up. During dawn, the tower went above surface, opening vents inside it to bring fresh atmosphere down into the depths of the chasm. Ellos leaned her head back, inhaling a long breath of what passed for 'fresh air' on Yul. Hot, full of smoke and ash, it was nevertheless better than stale, sulfuric air. _

_Ellos returned to her book. As she read, voices began to sound off, starting from the top levels and going down to the bottom; a primitive communication system. The clang of metal against stone was heard as people dived into rooms, locking the doors and quaking in fear. Others, less fortunate, had to make do with anything they could find; crevasses, crags, hiding places in the synthesizer; anything they could find. _

_A man leaned over the railing, shouting at Ellos. _

"_Mindless came through the vents to the surface! Hide!" _

_Ellos sighed, not seeming to care. She had always preferred to stand and fight, instead of delaying the inevitable and possibly making it worse. Nip problems right in the bud while they're small and easy to take care of, instead of putting it of until it becomes a real problem. Also, you had the advantage when you where on the offensive. _

_She put down the book, hiding it among the rocks. She jumped up, grabbing the bottom hook of a long, metal chain that ran downwards from the top of the cavern. it was used to hall things back and forth from the levels, but Ellos often used it to get between the levels quickly. _

_Hauling herself up hand by hand and shimming up the chain, she swung her head from side-to-side, looking for Mindless. She spotted one, a soldier mindless, grabbing her bat-wing blade and flinging it at it and catching it when it returned, slicing it in two. _

_She slowly worked her way up, making sure all the mindless in the center cavern where gone. She began to climb down, heading for the bottom. _

_Looking down, she saw something white and large come up from the bottom. The mindless equivalent of a Darkside, but with large angel wings. She saw the tips of it's trailing scarf first, then its head, turning from side to side, searching for a target, emblazoned with the weeping face Mindless sigil. Then the huge, sharp shoulders and tapering arms, angel wings, narrow torso and tiny, short legs. It's head snapped forward, non-existant gaze snapping onto Ellos. They stood there, face to face. _

_Eyeless to Eyeless. _

* * *

_And they shall kill those they once loved. _

_Magic the Gathering, _Scave Zombies

* * *

Author's Notes 

1.) Swordbreakers- Knives carried by Knights during the Middle Ales and used to fend off blows in close sword combat situations, this dagger received its name from its function. Strong rigid teeth cut into one edge of the blade would catch the sword blade of an opponent, frequently breaking it entirely thus giving this dagger the name "Swordbreaker Dagger". The dagger was held normally in the left hand, while keeping the right hand on the sword. When the opponent's sword became immobilized or broken, the task of defeating him was simple and victory was most certain.

2.) An old Navajo war chant. I wanted to translated it in Navajo, but couldn't find at free online translator.

3.) I always found it odd that there was only 1 brand of potions or ethers, not multiple brands. So Ellos will have all different types of potions; pills, jars of liquid, ect.

* * *

Stinky- you're evil. 

Adalai- What?

Stinky- you made Ansem fall in love with Ellos, who is the only one who can kill him and his enemies are going to try to use her to kill him! I mean, he's evil, but not even he deserves that!

Sephiroth- yeah! You made me look weak! I had to be rescued by Axel!

Adalai- yes, but Ellos was losing and you were winning when it happened. You would have won anyway if Axel didn't intervene. And I wanted it to end with a bang.

Sephiroth- but it still made me look weak. Now Cloud will be teasing me and I won't be able to stop him.

Adalai- quit your fussing, quit your fussing. And read the line.

Sephiroth- R&R please. I like to hear feedback from my fans, even constructive criticism.


	15. Chpt 15: Demon Blood

Lightbringer- Chpt. 15: Demon Blood

Adalai- Yea! Now we learn what happened to Strife/Riku, Ellos, and explain the pure heart thing (to an extent) and the deal with all the final fantasy characters and the age conflict. Sephiroth, Disclaimer!

Sephiroth- Ellos does not own anything. However, If any characters from Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy show up on her doorstep, I'll be more than happy to feed, clothe, house, and claim them for my own. I'm not picky, and I'll be more than willing to trade.

(_mutters: and lock them in the basement so they can't get away...)_

Adalai- I heard that!

Sephiroth- Eepph! (_Runs an hides under the coffee table with Stinky_)

Adalai- Dammit! Not again!

* * *

Ellos fell. It seemed endless and at the same time instantaneous, a vast void of nothing through which one could fall forever. 

And then, suddenly, she was thrust through this...wall, and found herself back in the heartless ship. In the middle of the air. And falling...again.

_This has got to stop..._Ellos thought. She whipped her hands out, looking for a rope, a handhold, anything.

She looked down. A glowing river, filled with shades, was rushing up fast on her. Suddenly, just a foot from the river, her coat hooked on something.

She twisted around, finding herself face to face with a man in red and black clothes, with white hair and sea-green eyes.

_What the hell? This is ridiculous...Why does everyone here look like Strife? _

The half-devil regarded the woman held at arm's length from him, trying to decide whether or not to drop her. She was tall and thin, muscular, with ash brown hair and a blindfold over her eyes. Yet she still seemed to be able to see, flailing and lashing out at him. He struggles sent her sliding out of her jacket slightly, the toes of her boots aging 40 years as they came near to the river of the dead.

'Yo, Devil-boy." A voice called from the dark recesses of the caverns. "Quit playing with Sephiroth's new toy and bring her over here."

* * *

Axel was pacing. He always paced when he was irritated, thinking, angry, or worried. Right now he was all four. And he always paced in the same place; the rug in front of the bathroom. There was a long, thin hole in that rug and the carpet beneath it was worn thin. She reminded herself to get it replaced. 

Meanwhile, she was leaning over the bathroom sink, engaged in an activity as age old as it was universal; putting on makeup. Drying her face, she pulled out a sponge and a stick foundation.

"I don't think that who we saw was Sora." She said, putting up the towel and opening the foundation stick. "It was probably one of the reflections. One of the Nobody reflections sent by the Enigmatic man, to spy on us." She dabbed at her face with the stick and used the sponge to blend it.

"So we have to find him before he finds anything out." Axel said. "Before he finds you out. They don't know your working with us, and I'd prefer a spy within the Nobody."

She looked at him with mock horror. "Is that all I am to you, a spy?"

"Yes." He said. "A good one, too."

She grinned at the compliment. "Now what about Ellos?"

"We can use her." Lady Axel said. She pulled out a liquid foundation and poured some on a sponge. "Ansem wants her; I know that look. He'll hesitate to kill her. All we need is to allow her to channel the dark energy from Kingdom Hearts, and Sephiroth has already seen to that. With all the Mako energy and Jenova cells she absorbed during the fight, he'll be able to control her like a puppet."

Rubbing the foundation on her face, she turned to Axel. "Any pure hearts captured?"

"Just one. The others escaped."

"Pity. I wonder why Ansem wants them."

"I've been trying to find that out for myself. No dice."

Jumping, she felt Axel wrap his arms around her waist, inhaling her scent deeply. She smelled of musk and spices. He began to kiss the side of her neck, feeling her squirm as his lips reached the sensitive spots under her ears and jawline.

"Shall we?" he said.

"You'll mess up my makeup." She joked, grinning. "But I'll do it if you..."

She heard a nock on the door. Axel growled, the red spikes of his hair shaking. "Stupid Shells. He wants you."

Disappointed, she broke away from his grasp. "I'll see to it. Tonight?"

"Definitely." He said, running his hands up her sides. She shook from repressed laughter, ticklish. But she didn't mind being tickled when Axel was the one doing it.

"Any more of these distractions and I'm going to find a room for us with soundproof walls and a foot-thick steel door with three different locks. Ones that lock from the _inside._" He said, irate.

* * *

Ellos screamed, struggling against the heavy leather straps that held her down on the metal gurney, more on instinct now than any calculated attempt to escape. Ellos had felt huge amounts pain before but dammit, even she had a limit and she was now about 120 miles south of it. The straps had been designed to hold down full-blooded demons; strong though she was being a half-dead, those straps still wouldn't bulge. She convulsed under them, finally shuddering and laying still. 

And then the process would begin again, Dante knew. Every time a new syringe of demon blood was pumped into her frail body. His blood. He winced as he felt the tip of the needle piece his skin again and the holder of it inject that blood into the girl and wait for her body to stop it's convulsions so he could do it again.

The convulsions where getting steadily worse. Unconsciously, he placed a hand on her forehead so she wouldn't bash her head against the table and knock herself out. It seemed to help a little. The girl quieted and bit her lip, trying to stop from screaming and drawing blood. He was amazed that she had not passed out yet; most people did, by this point. Unconsciously, he began to stroke her forehead, the girl now shivering and letting out a few, small, muffled sobs.

How many more syringes worth would they need?

Ellos sunk again into the depths of unconsciousness. A memory surfaced; her mother's hand on her forehead, soothing her and putting her to sleep. But that hand became hard and painful as her body woke and demon blood came into her once more. Already damaged from Mako and Jenova cells, it struggled futilely against the liquid fire introduced to her veins.

Ellos' wing shot out of her back, arched in another seizure, feebly struggling under her weight and the restraints. As Dante watched, demon blood poured into the newly born veins and arteries of the wing, deeper black lines against black. Slowly, the purples and yellows where leeched out, leaving only the deepest sable imaginable. Moaning, she turned partially over, revealing her right shoulder. A long, equally black demon's wing ripped though the wounded skin, blood seeping from the hole where it came through, bits of green crystal still embedded in her back flying loose.

Finally, she shuddered and lay still. He turned her over on her back and picked up a pair of tweezers. He began to dig out the green crystal shards embedded in her back.

As he worked, the wings on her back moved and twitched, newly formed nerves and blood vessels connecting with old ones. They were hardly matched; because of the claw, the tip of the demon wing was slightly above the angel wing, and the demon wing was several inches shorter than the angel wing. Asymmetry was a trait reserved for monsters and demons. And yet in the same sense, they were symmetrical. Light to dark; angel to demon. An odd combination.

* * *

"What do you want?" Lady Axel spat. 

_We found a man sneaking into the ship. He is odd...he is a Nobody and yet he is not. I don't know exactly how to describe it._

Lady Axel was tired of this nonsense. _He is either a Nobody or he's not! There is no In-Between! _

_You need to see him for yourself. _The shell replied. Tired of fighting with it, she merely followed it to where it was headed.

Every Nobody was granted their own set of rooms on the ship. Most used them as bedrooms. Axel simply slept in her rooms and used his rooms as a training room. That was where the Shells had brought their prisoner.

Lady Axel stepped in the room, eyes wide upon seeing the prisoner.

He was tall, over 6 feet, with an oval face and triangular jaw. He had pale skin and whitish-silver hair, with a blueish tinge. His body was lithe and muscular; the body of a warrior. He was slumped over, hair hiding his face, long chains covering his entire body; arm, legs, and torso, small, spiked balls made of pieces of metal fused together attacked to the chains. They where special chains, designed to hold Nobody and keep them from manifesting their other bodies and teleporting away.

Crossing the room, She grabbed him by his hair and tilted his head back, getting a good look at his face. Yes, it was there; the same triangular jaw and oval face, but the features where different; striking, ethereal, angelic almost. His slightly spiky thick silver hair framed his face like a halo, pure white tipped and streaked with silver, with a blue tinge throughout, slightly darker near the roots where the hair was thicker. He would be striking one day, even more than he already was. They type that turned heads when they entered the room. But under it she felt a strange kind of darkness burning, the same that she had felt in Ellos.

A magnificent creature. It was true; he had managed to become immensely powerful in terms of Nobody abilities without actually becoming a Nobody himself. His heart should have died, but instead fed off the darkness in Kingdom Hearts and became whole and strong again. Beneath the angelic façade, she could feel raw anger, hate, loneliness, emptiness, shame and shattered self confidence, guilt. At his own weakness, at himself, at the darkness that had saved his heart. And yet, to have come so far, to have become so strong even in darkness, he also had a strong light in him. He had such potential and power in him, just by who he was, to go untapped...She could feel the threads of fate around this one, a catalyst, someone who was pivotal in the scheme of things.

She would guide him to his full potential, but she needed to blind him, destroy the light inside. Strong and full of light was a dangerous combination. But how? Usually the best way was to destroy those close to him; but she didn't who those people were.

Possibly Ellos? They where both Forgotten; they had probably known each other from their time in Kingdom Hearts.

She smiled. They had two possible people able to kill Ansem; This Ellos, with an even stronger darkness in her than this boy, and this boy, who, if she was right...

She shook her head. Let's not jump to conclusions. _Anything found on him? _

The shell spoke. _Just a scroll_. He handed said scroll over.

She looked at it. She knew this language; she could probably translate it in a day.

_Keep him here. _She said to the shell, walking back to her and Axel's rooms with the scroll under her arm.

* * *

You're only as old as you feel. 

Right now Ellos felt about a hundred and eight.

Struggling for the final time to sit up, she only fell down again with a flop, unable to balance with the extra wing on her right shoulder, pulling her down. So she simply sat there, breathing shallowly, mind still racing to find a way to help her up, even though she knew it was hopeless. But she wouldn't give in. It just wasn't in her nature. She had a talent, a relentless drive, for survival, which would not let her give up.

Every muscle in her was tired, and her back ached from the crystals that had been yanked from it with a not too skilled hand. Or a gentle one. She was still broken and battered from her fight with Sephiroth, broken bones not yet set. That burning felling was still present in her veins from before, and she felt as if acid had been pored into her cells, sick and weakly. She didn't know that it was from Mako energy bonding with her nerves and Jenova cells replacing her human ones.

"Up, Sleeping Beauty?" A voice asked. Ellos turned around.

She was face to face with a tall man with grey-blue skin, yellow eyes, and...fames? For hair?

He laughed. "Hades, Lord of the Underworld, King of the Dead." He said grandly, expecting her to be impressed.

She wasn't.

"Oh, one of _those_ types." He said, crossing his arms. "Great. Just what I need, another Dante, badass of the Underworld. I think you got some of his personality through his blood. You're name's Ellos, right?"

She didn't correct him, so he assumed he had gotten it right. "Touche. Why can't Sephiroth send anyone good down here? First that irate blonde guy, then you. If I had to get a girl, why couldn't it have been someone with beauty _and_ an agreeable personality? Sure you're a real catch, but you're not much of a talker."

"All the better for you to ramble on, I expect." Ellos said, not really feeling up for conversation now. This Hades was getting on her nerves. "Where am I?"

Hades grinned. "Welcome to Hell, Ashy!"

* * *

"Oh. Yeah, you don't know. Well it all started like this. Almost 20 odd years ago, the Final fantasy worlds were destroyed by heartless and mindless invasion. All the people you see here are from those worlds. Something happened to us then. We died and latter simply showed up on various ages, as kids. We grew up, not remembering our past on the Final fantasy worlds, and then our worlds where attacked again, and we were thrown in here. We met people from our previous lives in here, and then we started to remember them." 

Kairi still looked confused. Tifa tried to clarify it for her. "Kairi, about how old do I look?"

"About 20."

"Yeah, but I have 35 years worth of memories. I remember growing up outside of Midgar, Moving into Midgar and working as a barmaid, jointing AVALANCHE, Meeting Cloud and fighting Sephiroth with him, seeing Aeris die, all of it. But it just suddenly ends. Next I remember myself at five years old, In another age. I remember growing up, our world getting destroyed by heartless, going on my own adventure through the ages, and then meeting with Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka and settling down on Destiny Islands. Then I was captured, and met Barret, and remembered my first past, on Midgar." She laughed. "I'm living proof of reincarnation, I guess."

Barret looked at Tidus, who was just starting to stir. "Sometimes the process of remembering is harder on some than it is on others."

One hand on his head, Tidus sat up. "What...Yuna?" he said, seeing the brunette hovering over him, a worried look on her face.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

"Yeah...I think. I remember you...but...this doesn't make any sense!"

"It's like you have two different sets of memories, isn't it?" She inquired. "We all do, when we came here and saw people from our previous lives. We don't know why we have them."

"We only know it had something to do with the heartless invasion 20 years ago. We all come from worlds destroyed by them. Their leader, this guy called 'Ansem', calls us 'Pure Hearts', whatever the hell that means." Barret muttered.

_Ansem survived? How?_ Kairi wondered. _And more importantly, what happened with all these people? How do they remember two different sets of lives, of memories? _

"I didn't think that you had survived. After you disappeared, I guess that's when they got you, huh?"

"No, They didn't catch me on Destiny Islands. When we were fighting the heartless..." He told her the story of how he had met the Endless, gotten to Twilight Town, and meeting Sora, Riku, and Ellos, about the Nobody, and about the attack.

After he stopped, there was a moment of silence. Then he was bombarded with questions.

"You saw Cloud, Aeris, and Yuffie!" Tifa yelled.

"You saw Squall!" Irvine, realizing Squall by his description, pushed her aside, only to be smacked upside the head by Tifa, cowboy hat flying in his face.

"You saw Sora and Riku?" Kairi said, pushing aside both of them. "What had happened to Sora and Riku? Why did Sora try to destroy the keyhole? How did Riku get out of Kingdom Hearts and become a Nobody?"

"Woah, Woah, Woah! Calm down!" Tidus said, throwing his arms up in the air.

Kairi opened her mouth to say that Sora would never do anything to hurt the worlds, or the keyholes, until she was cut off by the sound of stone against stone.

The large door into the kennels, to heavy to be shifted by any but a God, was pushed open by a single figure, stepping from the darkness beyond. And from Kairi's nightmares, light gleaming on ash-brown hair and rough black blindfold.

* * *

_Predator and Prey looked at each other for a moment, unsure which was which. Shooting her legs out, Ellos pushed off the White Darkside's chest and swung around in an arc, sliding down the chain till she got enough slack to touch the cavern walls. Running perpendicular to the rock sides, she ran circles around the thing, tying it up with the chain. At the end, she pushed off and upwards from the wall, using the left-over centrifugal force to slingshot onto it's back. Silently thanking Newton, she began to slash at the creature's wings, now pinned to it's back by the chain, and yelled at the top of her voice; _

"_Strife! Get your ass in here NOW!" _

_She felt a jerk as the chain started to give way under the weight of the Mindless, it's slashed and torn wings not longer able to help support it. Taking a few more slashes at it's back, she jumped up and wrapped her legs around the monster's neck and attacked the portion of the upper neck and head exposed between it's face plate and back armor. She brought down her twin blades in a version of Ars Arcanium, modified for her weapons and each individual move preformed twice, once for each blade. Spinning them around to bring the spiked staff ends in front, she stabbed and sliced even more into the flesh, finally plunging both into the neck and casting a firaga spell through the staff-like end of the white weapon, jarring both loose. Then bringing both blade ends back up front, she stabbed them straight into the heartless' flesh, all the way down to the hilts. She pulled the trigger of the gun, causing a muffled explosion and a bullet with a Thunder spell in it bursting out the front of the heartless' through, dislodging the weapons halfway from the Mindless' wound. _

_And not a second too late. The chain finally gave, Mindless and ground rushing to meet each other. Hanging onto her submerged blades, the mindless managed to cushion Ellos' fall. Reacting quickly, it rolled over, crushing her beneath it's weight. For a second all she could see was white mindless flesh, and then heard a hideous screech as a Master Charter mark of fire and Sunstone light burned away its arm and half it's torso, freeing Ellos. _

"_Hey ulgy! I got something for you!" _

_(Bang bang bang bang bang) _

_Wondering what in the 10,000 hells Strife was doing, she turned over on her side to see him smashing in it's head with one of the heavy tongs from the smith. Nailing it over the head again and again, muscles tensing on his arms, white hair trailing in his face and the sunstone on his pendant flickering like a dying candle flame, exhausted from the spell, He looked as if he was some possessed by a demon. Blue ichors spurted and leaked from the crushed, mangled mess that had once been a Mindless head, it shuddered and lay still, it's body starting to drift off. _

_But he continued to hit it. Standing up, she ran over to him. "Strife, Strife, stop hitting it, it's dead!" She yelled, shaking his shoulders from behind. _

_He whirled around, tongs held over his head, a look of fury and hate on his face, swinging it at Ellos. Throwing her weapons up in her X-shaped block, she prepared to get hit, knowing that these weapons where to light and brittle to provide any real defense against the heavy cast iron ready to slam into her face and kill her. _

_But the death she expected did not come. Strife dropped the tongs, a look of horror on his face. "God...I'm sorry, I didn't see...I thought you were..." _

_Strife wished she would scream at him for being such an idiot, shake him, back off in fear, anything. Instead, she just stood there with a deadpan look in her face, as if looking upon a complete stranger, a possible danger to her or enemy, broken trust and shattered view of him in her eyeless gaze. Cold and distant, suddenly shut out. _

_She backed off, watching him slowly, as if expecting him to leap up and try and hurt her. Disappointed, betrayed, and hurt face looked back as if to say "Why? What happened to you? I thought you where my friend, but you just tried to kill me. How can I ever trust you again? How can we ever go back the way we were? How can I forgive you?" _

_Slinking back into a crevice in the rock, she hid from him, fearful and confused. He did not try to follow; Ellos knew every inch of the cave like the back of her hand, and if she didn't want to be found, he knew he wouldn't be the one to find her. Tongs in hand, he marched slowly back to the smith, not wanting to think how similar Ellos' face looked to Sora's when he had found out that his best friend had betrayed him. _

* * *

_He seems filled only with shadows. Where does his strength come from?_

- _Orim_

* * *

Adalai- okay, sorry for the delay. I got lazy again. Seems I get more and more lazy as the beginning of school gets closer and closer. Instead of my normal 3 days to write a chappie in the summer, the schedule for the school year will be every week, posted during the weekends. Just so you know. Sephy, Read! 

Sephiroth- R&R, please.

Adalai- Sephy?

Sephiroth- What? And don't call me that.

Adalai- why do the Brazilians call April the month of pain and suffering?

Sephiroth- because that was the month _you _where born, Stupid.

Adalai- ok, that makes...hey!

Sephiroth- (_snickers_)

Adalai- grrrrhhh... I'll get you for this...someday...


	16. Chpt 16: Echoed Past

Lightbringer- Chpt. 16: Echoed Past

Adalai- Ok, this chappie is in two parts- the first is Strife/Riku, Axel and Lady Axel, the last is what happened to Ellos after she woke up, ending with her meeting Kairi. I'll see if I can squeeze in Scion and Clay too. Sephy, disclaimer!

Sephiroth- (_dusty from being dragged out from under the coffee table by his hair_) She didn't own them last 15 chapters, what makes you think she'll own them in the 16th chapter?

Adalai- you didn't read the paper.

Sephiroth- I refuse to use the word 'chappies'. It's bad grammar.

Adalai- Like you refusing to use the work 'literary work' when describing my story?

Sephiroth- yes.

Adalai- fine, be a soil-sport. Anyway, on with the Fic!

* * *

_Dear Diary, _

_Today the Endless gave me a strange sword in the shape of a key, a Link called a keyblade. It's some kind of magic blade that controls the 'natural locks' in hearts, used to constrict or release things inside the heart. There are 6 different keys, one for each side of one of the three doors between the Worlds. Mine opens or closes the way into the Present World from Kingdom Hearts. I understand that these doors and keys have hearts and wills of their own, which is why the keyblade's ability to control hearts also allows it to open these doors. _

_They have also given me a large number of documents, preserving their culture, their technology, their history, their ways of life, and most importantly, shards of the two broken keyblades. Though they have not entrusted me with any of the Links written during The Gathering, the Links they have provided me with allow me to travel, with the help of the Keyblade, through most worlds and places in the Disney Kingdoms system. Enough that I might finally go home. _

_(the speaker goes on to tell of how he was apprenticed to a wizard, and was kicked out after a 'broom enchanting incident' and, through a series of events, was competing with his brother for the throne and had to bring back a legendary sword called a keyblade to prove his authenticity as king.) _

_The Endless are fascinating creatures. They are more than they appear simply on the surface, and despite the tension between the two, they have more in common than they know and actually come from the same source. It is said that the keyblades and the doors were made by Endless and Nobody working 'as one', at least more so than they do now at the Gathering. _

_(Tale about the two keyblades, one bringing destroying worlds, the other saving them, and a note at the end saying 'Oblivion and Oathkeeper? The End and the one who will open the door? Castle Oblivion Link- where one falls, two shall arise? Fall to what? Two of what shall arise? Is there an 'Oathkeeper' Link?)_

_Though I have lived among them for 5 years now, I still do not know all their secrets. I may know their culture, class system, technology, abilities and defects, their physiology, but so many thinks are left in the dark to me. What is their connection to the Nobody? Why are they called endless? What do they have to do with Kingdom Hearts? Where do they come from, originally? What does Castle Oblivion have to do with the Endless and their connection to the Nobody? What do they have to do with the keyblades and the doors? Where do their Sensates and Giant trees, which are unlike anything on any of their worlds, come from? _

_This is a mystery not easily solved. The past of the Endless and Nobody, particularly where they coincide, is very much a fragmented tale. I cannot gain any answers to it in this place, but it is answers we so desperately need. So I must set out to find those answers. _

_They shall come in the form of three hearts. _

_First, the true Keyblade master. He is the only one able to wield the keyblades for their true purpose, whatever that may be. Though they may be many keyblades, there is only one true Keyblade master. Just possession of a keyblade is not proof of mastership, since they have hearts and wills of their own, and can change from wielder to wielder. However, a type of 'identifying trait' was written into the Link, so that it would be easier to narrow it down. This trait is that the Keyblade master will be half-human, half-Cetra, a race from an Age near to the Endless' homeworlds. _

_Second, the one who will open the door. This Link has one identifying trait: that they will probably be someone close to the Keyblade Master. They are the one who will open the door to the light, the key to it being their own heart. _

_The third is trickier. They call him the Lightbringer. His creation is entirely our mistake; we tried to create a Link that recreated the fissure as a heart, giving it physical existence. This was not or original plan; we tried to protect it by linking it to a heart that we believed could not exist. And yet, somehow, impossibly, it does. The problem is something that has a physical form, or is a heart, can be destroyed, broken, or die. We have checked and looked over the Words of the Link we created, but still cannot see how such a heart could be possible; We wrote the most blatantly paradoxical heart we could think of. It shall also be impossible to find; no identifying trait, and it could be anywhere. _

_Unless the Endless and the Nobody know something about their origins that they have not told me. _

_Sincerely, _

_Mickey Mouse_

"No mistakes?" Lady Axel inquired.

"No." Axel said tiredly, pushing a pair of thin, elegant reading glasses she had given him for his birthday last year. He still refused to admit he was far-sighted; when she had come in and seen him hunched over the manuscript with the glasses on, he made up the excuse that the writing was to tiny for 'anyone to be able to see without a magnifying glass' in a angry, exasperated tone.

Axel's voice interrupted her remembrance. "This part about the keyblade master being part Cetra", stabbing at the part in question with his finger, "Reminds me of something that happened back when I was living at Hollow Baston, before I became a Nobody."

* * *

Riku shifted uncomfortably from his sleeping place on the windowsill, head resting on his bent arm and the other over his chest, knees drawn up and muscles bunched in the constricted space. Not that there was anywhere else more comfortable; the whole ship was made of shadowflesh; stone cold and hard as iron, and the window was way to narrow to accommodate his frame. Sighing, he lay his head down, hair spread out on the stone, and looked out the window, seeing Twilight Town disappear beneath them. No longer needing the presence and the firepower of the big ships, a force of Heartless and mindless and one of the smaller ships would stay and finish the conquest of the world, the rest of the fleet moving on to invade new worlds.

Lady Axel stood in the doorway, watching him watch the ships ascend from the planet's surface, wondering what he was wondering. The chains that had bound him when she had seen him yesterday were now bolted to the floor of a small room off the main room, bare of everything but a window that he was now perched on.

Strife had fought other rouge Nobody before, but at least he had a weapon and Ellos was there to empty a round out of her gebo at their sadistic countenances. Now this Nobody held the key to his chains and the ability and knowledge to slip past his unemotional chassis and get up close and personal. And it made her cocky as hell.

"What's your name?"

"Strife." He muttered.

"I just thought you might want to know where we are going. Isn't that what you Nobody do, collect information to decide your next move, where you are going to exert your influence next?" She said, smiling in a ways predators smiled at prey before they feed.

"You're the Nobody, not me. You tell me."

Crossing the room, she looked in the voluminous black of his blindfolded gaze. "Clever Strife." Voice dripping honey, it nevertheless could not disguise the disgust and raw hatred she felt towards her own kind. "We Nobody; we calculate. We manipulate. Legends say we have no god because we strive to _be_ gods."

"Don't we all." Strife responded, voice deadpan.

She looked at the intra-space beyond the window, as if she could see their destination from where she stood. "We are going to an age called Hollow Baston. A little out of our way- and out plans." His seraphic silhouette, black against the deep space and myriad stars beyond, twisted in recognition, before growing cautious and guarded. His lack of reaction in itself signified that he knew of the age.

Turning her gaze to him again, she spoke. "I am a person of a curious nature. And curious times have come to us. Ansem (another twitch of recognition from the Nobody at the window), our current Heartless commander, who had destroy many worlds, killed many people, both with my Lord Axel and those four years ago at Hollow Baston. It is a demanding job, one that he does well and thoroughly."

Moving closer to Strife, as if she might find the answer to this next question written on his sphinx-like front, she continued. "And yet, he cannot bring himself to allow the death of one stranded Forgotten. Curious as I am, I can only ask myself; Why? Does our great commander find himself in love with an unknown female Half-Dead? Truly, love is a strange thing, that Ansem should find himself enamored with such a person."

This time, when she failed to read a response on Strife's empyreal profile, still turned away from her and looking out, disappointment and anger showed on her face. Even though she was not the most beautiful, she was unused to being ignored, especially by men, when her position and charm usually sent them flocking to her in droves. She changed the subject of Ellos to another; at least for now.

"And what of you?" Strife asked, voice quiet and yet strangely audible in the silence of the room, voice a sonorous baritone and tone grave and hard. "Companion of the highest commander in the whole fleet, probably the most powerful woman in this society. How do you see yourself as an individual, see your future? What do you wish for, hope to be? I've heard the speeches you give to the populaces of your conquests, about how you are only interested in converting hearts to their true forms, but even I can see that the commanders and military personnel each has their own design and agenda, a different idea of how things should be carried out. Though Nobody, you are all human, and individuals. What part am I to play in your plans?"

"Treasonous and blasphemous talk, Strife. I think I like you already."

"You have to believe it first to commit treason and blasphemy. I just say what I see."

"And calculating."

He didn't exactly shrug; it was more a kind of movement, somewhat like a shiver but too fluid and quick to fully describe, centered on the shoulders, with the same liquid, mercurial grace noted in Ellos. "Well, I am a Nobody. It's in my nature. Like you said, we are always calculating."

Pulling a key from her pocket, she unlocked the chains around him from the floor. That is all very interesting, but unfortunately, a complete waste." She pulled out two Twin hooks swords. They looked somewhat like swords; the blade part was curved over in a hook, the bottom of the hilt had a spearhead attached to it, and over the hilt was a crescent blade, tips pointing opposite from the hilt, connected to either side of the handhold by two flat metal rods.

Twisting to the side, he swung to avoid the blow he thought was directed at him. Instead of going for Strife, she thrust both blades at the material of the window. It stretched for a moment, and then popped. The entire window gave way, the shards flying away into space, air rushing out.

Not expecting Lady Axel to go for the window and not him, Strife grabbed frantically at anything to keep him from flying out into intra-space, feet sliding ever closer to the edge as he simultaneously tried to keep his balance. His hand brushed against fabric and he instinctively grabbed at it.

Now steady, he realized what he had grabbed.

Psyche body manifested to keep her from flying out, a superior smile on her face, Strife realized he had grabbed at Lady Axel's black cloak, specifically, at her chest. A moment passed, uncomfortable and anxious for him, but Lady Axel had a smug, self-satisfied look on her face, which reminded him painfully of a tiger looking at a particularly juicy piece of meat. Her weapons disappearing in a flash of light, she grabbed at his chains and pushed back tentatively balanced Strife, so that he was kept from falling into oblivion by Lady Axel's grip.

"Enough fooling around." She spoke. "I'm not interested in why Ansem spared her. What I'm interested in is the fact that she can manifest Nobody energy bodies, even though she isn't a Nobody. Half-Deads can't manifest those. Is that why the Nobody are so interested in her origins? Or is it...something else?"

Strife still did not respond. "Don't remember your friend's origins? Her home age, her lineage, how she escaped from Kingdom Hearts? I don't suppose you had anything to do with that? And why did she come onto this age at this crucial time? I don't suppose you have something to do with that, too? You're a Nobody; calculate this." With her other hand, she drew a syringe full of some kind of glowing green energy and placed the tip of the needle against his chest, keeping him at the edge of the window. Basically, Strife was stuck between a sharp needle and a hard place. "The likelihood of you staying alive without my help. Done calculating yet?"

"Save your breath, Nobody." Strife replied. "If we knew how, do you really think she would be running around the present world? You've seen Ellos; even if we did know, do you think we could honestly control something like that? Get to your real point."

She smiled. Observant little one. "Do you know what was in that syringe?" She looked down, Strife following her eyes to see the object of her attention, wondering what she meant by 'was'. The syringe was stuck in his chest, empty. Because of the adrenaline he had not even felt the prick of the needle.

"Pure Mako energy." She concluded. "Most humans would have already died from that level of exposure to it. The only ones that could survive that much would have to be part Cetra." Behind her, the shadowflesh of the ship closed around the hole left in the ship. Though his body was dead for so long he could not feel pain, he could still feel his flesh ripping open. He felt a cold liquid running down his back, he collapsed on one knee, dizzy and weak from blood loss.

Circling Strife, she idly ran a finger horizontally over his shoulderblades. "The survivors of Hollow Baston tell a story. Of a female Jenova clone called Danya, who was strangled and thrown, presumed dead, into the Ocean of other Worlds. Strangling is such an unreliable form of murder; sometimes the person goes unconscious from lack of air, and their bodies go into shock, and the heart stops beating temporarily, causing them to seem dead even if they aren't. It is possible she could have survived. So thus my question is; why would Ansem seek to kill this person?"

Not getting an answer from Strife, who was busy with other things (Mainly trying not to collapse unconscious), she provided her own answer. "It has to do with a certain Endless called Malificient. Call her a 'seer' of sorts. They are many views as to whether anyone, Endless or not, can predict the future. Or futures. Perhaps she was just a raving lunatic, pushed over the edge by the destruction of her home age. Perhaps she could not see the future, but drew her knowledge from...somewhere else."

She stopped behind Strife. Reaching into his back, she yanked a lone, slender wing from his back, bits of flesh and dislodged feathers flying loose, slick and wet from blood, its true color stained crimson from the liquid, cold as his body was dead. "She said that the child born of a Jenova clone would be the true keyblade master. And that he would be Ansem's downfall. He and Sephiroth where both Jenova clones, but they where men; so that left only Danya."

Trailing her finger from his wing, over his shoulder and up his neck, it came to rest under his chin, sharp nail digging into the skin. With the other, she brought out the Oblivion keyblade.

It vanished in a haze of black and purple energy, reappearing in Strife's hand. Tilting his chin up to her eye level, she spoke.

"You are the last Cetra." Releasing his chin, she ripped the blindfold from his eyes. They were green-blue, and had a sort of intangible, liquid, depthless quality to them, transformed into glistening gems by his transformation into a Nobody, the mako energy giving them a green glow that seemed to come from the very bottom of those endless pools, the Jenova cells seeming to enhance that aforementioned liquid, depthless quality.

"And you are the True Keyblade Master."

* * *

As soon as he had spoken the words, Hades found himself at the point of Ellos' knife. He rolled his eyes. Jeez, this woman had no sense of humor. This living, they acted as if it would kill them to, well, live a little!

Hades, being the kind of person who thinks everything's a joke, through this was a joke, too. "Listen kid, stop fooling around and put that butter knife away. Do you really think something like that would kill a God like me?"

"Ever heard of the Subtle Knife? They say it's blade is so sharp it can but through the fabric between ages. They even say it can kill Gods."

Hades' eyes traveled downward, looking at the plain knife and wondering if it really could do what she said.

"This, obviously, is not the Subtle Knife." Hades felt at the same time relieved, stupid that he had fallen for her bluff, and angry that she had made him look like a fool, if only to himself. "But I know having your throat cut and the subsequent blood loss that will follow will be painful, immortality aside. Tell your three Endless friends to come forward."

From the shadows, a cackling, eerie laugh was heard. A second voice spoke. "It's been a long time since anyone called us that."

A third voice, higher and warbling, spoke. "What made you know that?"

"The fact that the three fates where supposed to have lived forever. That's close enough." Ellos snapped, eyes still on Hades.

"A Forgotten? How exotic." the short, fat one said. A tall, thin one spoke next. "No wonder you saw us." To normal eyes, the three figures seemed indistinct, still half-hidden in shadow. But to Ellos' sight, every detail was clear and disgustingly distinct.

One was tall and thin, on short and fat, one middle height and weight. They're bodies where rotted, wrapped in rags, bits of grave dirt and decayed flesh falling off their corpses in clods, straggled, grey hair falling into empty eye sockets.

The fat one at the end spoke first. Out of the side of her head, a rotten, wizened sensate emerged from her head. From the flower-shaped organ, she plucked a rotten, yellow, oozing eye. Rubbing it clean on her clothes (which only served to make it dirtier) she popped the moldy eye into its socket, the ocular spinning lazy arcs, until it got stuck backwards in the eyehole. Trying to dislodge it, she danced around the room like a drunken ballerina, smacking wetly into the walls, completely blind. Rolling her missing eyes, the thin and tall one smacked her up the back of the head. The rotten eye unstuck and faced the right way, lolling and jiggling in the slightly too big opening, tilted slightly downwards and to the side.

"You are light"

"You are dark"

"You are in-between gray"

"You are the leap of faith into the light"

"You are the sure path through the darkness"

"You are the link between"

"You are the light's strength"

"You are it's weakness,

"it's wound"

"You are our salvation"

"our redemption"

"our damnation"

"your allies will be legion"

"you will kill the humans without hearts"

"And a different kind of darkness, a shadow, will stand by your side."

"You are nothing."

"You are all things"

"Made one thing."

"You are the third key."

"The third enemy."

"Paradise, Change, and Nobody"

"The World of Darkness."

"The World of Light."

"The World of In-Between."

"A creation born of ignorance."

"The true light sleeps, inside the darkness."

"But the door to the light is not behind the darkness."

"In a World in-between live the remnants of a forgotten world."

"Where one falls to the heartless, two of these ruins shall rise."

"then there must be a you other than yourself existing somewhere."

"However, the importance of the future will be written with your hand."

"You will forget everything you knew and will have to search for it again.

"And now you step forward to realize this wish."

"We pray for our sorrows to end."

"We hope that our hearts will blend."

"One sky, one destiny."

"You are the key to your own door."

"You, who died so you could be born,"

"Will have no end."

Suddenly, the fat one on the end yanked the putrid eye from it's socket and thrust in into Ellos' eyeless gaze.

"Because the all-seeing eye sees what the eyeless seer cannot."

Ellos blinked. Suddenly her vision changed; she saw the three fates on a black background, not with her own eyesight, but through the three fates' eye.

The fates vanished into the darkness. Suddenly, from the darkness, a small point of light appeared. It grew in intensity, filling Ellos' whole view.

She saw through the eyes of an Endless. It was like her synaethesia, only more extreme; sight, color, sound, touch, and smell where incredibly acute and so blended together that it was impossible to distinguish one from the other; ever color and hue was distinguished and tiny edges and details etched in light. She could see smells, textures, and sound like people see color; and vise versa. It had everything forgotten sight did, but better and more.

A woman was crumpled up in front of a black castle surrounded by falls that- Ellos resisted the urge to rub the grimy eye in disbelief- flowed upward, surrounded by floating platforms. Slowly, she got up, clutching the side of her head. Ellos recognized it as the woman from her dream; she had the same grey skin, glowing green eyes, and black hair. Slowly, she got up and walked, swaying, to the castle's door. She slipped inside, the stone door shutting behind her with a bang.

Suddenly, Ellos found herself yanked back from the vision. Clutching her stomach and not caring that Hades and the three fates where there, she leaned over and heaved, vomiting blood because she had no food in her stomach.

Shaking, kneeling, Ellos watched the demonic blood melt the stone beneath her feet. Cocking her head downward, she threw up again, not because she had been thrust from the revelation so abruptly, but because in the few seconds the door of that castle, her body had sensed an evil stronger than any she had ever encountered, even in Kingdom Hearts. Not even since her first memory of Kingdom Hearts had she encountered an evil that would make her body react so violently and fill her mouth with a hard metallic tang that filled her mouth with dry sulfur and made bile rise from her throat.

* * *

Ellos raised her head to find herself looking straight into eyes of blue hellfire. Hades was grinning; looking at the three fates, she saw them shuffle around uncomfortably, as if they had shown her something they weren't supposed to reveal, and knew a secret they had promised not to tell.

"Listen, Ashy." Hades said. "I'm a business man; there's no love lost between me and Sephiroth...damn white haired angel wannabe..." he trailed off. Jerking himself off his reverie, he spoke again. "Someone of your...talents...would be useful for a job my superiors want done."

Snapping his fingers, a scroll appeared in front of Ellos, complete with quill.

I, Hades, henceforth bequeath protection and use of the three fates to find her friends (Strife, Leon, Aeris, Cloud, Yuffie, Cid) to Ellos, in return that, in a month, week, and day of the signing date, she kill Ansem.

Failure to kill Ansem will result in permanent binding of Ellos to the service of my superiors.

"What about after?"

"Huh?" Hades questioned. "Oh. Dammit, I hoped you'd miss that." He snapped his finger and the requested line appeared on the parchment.

Ellos went over the agreement a second time, looking for loopholes. "Why only those six?"

Hades crossed his arms. "You don't want to know what happened to the others."

"Fine." Ellos said. "Then you won't mind if I ask the fates where they are." Turning to the Endless, she thought of someone to ask about. "What about Clay?"

The tall, thin one answered. "She is safe, but trapped. Trapped inside the mind of the Nobody..." Suddenly Hades gave them all a hard glare, shutting them up.

"Scion." Ellos finished. "Where is he?"

Hades pouted. "Listen, it doesn't matter. You can't get to him even if you tried. So why do you want to know?"

"I'll be the judge of that." Ellos said, just a little bit of bite in her voice. Hades started back, not expecting emotion in her voice.

But is was the Fates who answered her in return.

"The Nobody sleeps, trapped in his own mind, deep in the river of the dead."

* * *

"Fine, go break a leg, or an arm, or maybe something vital like, oh, a _skull_!"

Ignoring Hades' entreaties, Ellos opened the large stone doors of the God of the Dead's stone palace, walking out into the prison.

"Listen, there is _no way_ you can beat him, and even if you can and all the demons beyond, you can't step foot in the river of the dead; you're still living! The only reason he's not a withered husk is because he's already dead! And he's at the very bottom of the river. It's not as if you can just go for a swim in it...hey! I'm not done talking to you!"

Running to catch up with Ellos, he continued his rant. "I want to protect my investment. A dead Ellos, an aged Ellos, or a wounded Ellos isn't of any help to me."

"What investment?" Ellos questioned. "I haven't even signed your contract."

Hades felt his temperature rise and fire creep down his shoulders and hair. Just before he burst into yelling, he looked at the contract. Looking at the scroll and it's noticeable lack of signature, then to Ellos, then to the scroll and back to Ellos again, it only caused his temper to worsen.

"After I do this, then I'll decide whether or not to sign your contract."

Suddenly, the God was engulfed in flames. Opening his mouth to continue his angry outburst, he paused and sniffed the air.

"Do you smell smoke?" he questioned. Looking down at himself, which was now completely immersed in an orange inferno, he jumped up and down, yelling in surprise and trying to beat down the literal flames of his own rage. "Heh, I'M ON FIRE! YAH! SOMEBODY GET SOME WATER!"

Wondering how someone such as Hades could have possibly gained and kept a position such as God of the Dead, Ellos descended into the depths of Hell itself, heading toward the eerie blue glow that marked the final resting place of so many of the dead of this world. By gaining Hades as an ally and allowing him to move part of his domain into the ship, they insured that even the hearts of the dead did not escape the heartless' grasp. As the wails of the damned became audible, Kairi wondered how someone who had never before head such cries could continue on without fear or grief. But Ellos felt each moan and wail acutely, as if another nail was studded in her heart. As such cries do, ever one of them felt like that of someone she cared about and had died because of; Natalia, Cameron, Liz, Kat.

But she wouldn't let that happen again. Not with Strife, now that she had finally found him again. He wouldn't be in this mess if not for her, so she would get both of them out.

Yes, it truly is people who make life complicated.

* * *

"_Let the past be past. Do not call up that which you cannot put down. Destroy that which destroyed us, so long ago./You are afraid you will forget, but you never will. You will forgive and remember." _

Magic the Gathering_/The Poisonwood Bible_

* * *

Adalai- quick chappie before I go out for the weekend. This also marks my first complete week of school! Yeah! And I also got the chapter up on schedule. The school schedule goes as such- Fridays, as often as possible, but if not, the chappie is posted Sunday. Que the line!

Sephiroth- R&R please.


	17. Chpt 17: What Dwells in Dreams

Lightbringer- Chpt. 17: What Dwells in Dreams

Adalai- Ok, the first part is made of dreams and memories of both Clay and Scion as they sleep in the River of the Dead, while they try and help each other to recover themselves and remember why they are here, their purpose. First part is Scion, Second is Clay,Third Ellos. Sephy, disclaimer!

Sephiroth- Awwww... ok, If Adalai owned Square or Disney, would she be writing this fic? No, she'd be chilling beside a pool on her own personal island in the Caribbean.

* * *

_Being dead is like being in a dreamless sleep. _

_You fall asleep and dream, then wake up and wonder what dreams visited you that you do not remember. _

_Except you don't get to wake up and wonder. You just sleep, forever and ever. _

_And Nobody knows those dreams. _

_Nobody are the ones who get to wake up after the sleep of death, the dreamless sleep there previous lives which they do not remember but in bits and pieces. For once you become Nobody, you forget yourself. You cannot be Nobody and yet have that which makes you somebody; your previous life. _

_But you know better, my little Nobody. The dreamless sleep of death is when you're a Nobody, not before. The only difference is that your awake, not asleep. You wander in the land of dreams physically. That is the only difference. _

_**Scion, don't give up! Remember who you are! If you forget, I forget! **_

_Wake up from the dream. Surrender to your fate, Nobody. You are an abomination, the dead that walks, trapped in life. Sleep in the rivers of death, sleep from the waking sleep to the dreamless one. Then we shall see which one is easier. Dream of waters that weep and angels without shadow or heart. Sleep, and know that what you dream is what surrounds you. Waters that weep with the agony of the heart until agony is no more and the heart is empty. Then you will see the world without time. Even the fates cannot do that; they measure it day by day, but not the whole web of truth. _

**_Remember what you were meant to do! _**

* * *

Darkness and Emptiness. Those were the first things Scion ever experienced. Even though it was the first moment of his existence, some memory of the past warned him of the antagonism of these forces, which seemed poised on the edge of the platform he stood on, read to seize and swallow him whole. 

But then the darkness receded, leaving only the emptiness, he felt like a child once afraid of monsters who had found were only his imagination. Perhaps he _had_ only imagined it.

From above, a light shined, dim and distorted as though from a great distance through water. It was calm and, strangely, comforting. He moved closed, face upturned to the light.

Around him, three platforms rose; sword, shield, staff.

_You are not yet complete._ A voice spoke in his head. Or rather, many voices, speaking as one. _Many come here who are not complete. But you are unique. You were born, not made, incomplete. You will be Nobody, then become somebody. So that he who you were born from may too become complete. But because you are not complete, you cannot make the choice. _

The three platforms sank from view. _When you can make the choice, then you will know you are whole. You will know you are not merely a smaller part but your own person. _

"Am I dead?"

_In the human sense, yes. In truth? Far from it. _

"What are you?"

_I am the voice of the Non-Existent. I am the Enigmatic Man, the oldest and wisest of the Nobody. _

_Since you are a descendent in heart, if not body, you will be known as Scion. _

_You will go into Oblivion and you will remember. You will take those memories and create your own. You will become your own person. You are partially Sora, but you will become wholly Scion. You decisions will define yourself as separate and individual. _

_Know that you are yourself, and there are no others like you. People will tell that you are broken, a copy of Sora, a mere shadow of him, and you will wonder if you truly are your own man, but know that you are Scion and you are a unique and separate being from all others. Know that you are yourself and nobody else. _

Above him, the radiance darkened to an unhealthy, wan glow, drifting down in tentacles of crackling lightning that seemed to reach and grab, the light giving the water a cold, sickly, iron essence.

_But know that not all light is good and not all darkness bad. This is the first misconception discarded by the new Nobody. Light and good are two separate things, and darkness and evil separate too. _

_Behind you! _

Scion whirled around and saw the edges of a blue, trailing scarf come over the lip of the platform, followed by a white darkside. Scion didn't know how he knew what a darkside was, but he looked at the creature with hatred anyways. How was he supposed to kill it?

_You hold the keys in you hand. You have merely to call them forth. _

Abruptly, Scion felt a blaze of light and swell of darkness pour out from his hands, changing in substance and form until they became the Oblivion and Oathkeeper.

Running, he charged at the creature, slashing repeatedly at the arms and hands of the creature and repeatedly throwing and catching the Oblivion in strike raids. The creature seeing that this boy was no easy prey, returned to the nihility from whence it came. Scion felt the blades slide from his hands and dispel into nonexistence.

_I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole. But unlike her, you have a choice. The darkness below goes back to the "Real" world, and you wake up, and this is but a dream. Or..._

_Go through the door. You will come to a dark beach. Follow the beach, and it will become a road over green fields and hills, and will branch into three paths on a wide plain. Take any path you want; in your current state, all paths will be the same, go to the same places. It is only when you return whole will these paths have any use to you. You will come to a green and yellow castle, surrounded by snow and clouds; go inside and see how far down the rabbit hole goes. _

Scion turned around a saw a door, purple and covered with strange writing and walked through, light coming from the door to cover his body.

* * *

How long has it been? Has it truly been so long ago? These memories are all relative; broken, fragmented, just beyond my grasp; maybe that is for the best. If we Endless remembered all of our pervious lives, and the life we lived before we became Endless, we would probably go mad. Too many of us do, anyway. 

"Don't you ever wonder what the sun would look like? Or the moon and stars?"

"Why do you wonder about these kinds of things?"

"Don't you? You do make Age Links, after all. It's your job to wonder."

Clay leaned back against the living wood of the World Tree, feeling the living pulse of sap pumped thousands of miles in the heartwood, like blood through the veins of a human. The World tree was everything to the Endless; it gave them their unique bodies, able to be energy, organic, and inorganic at the same time, by putting a small bit of itself in them.

Her sensate twitched, responding to the faint disturbance of air from... what was her name? It was on the tip of Clay's tongue...

"But what I wonder about is us and the Nobody; where we come from, how we're connected, what distinguishes us from each other, how we became Endless and not Nobody."

Clay's friend flicked her black hair away from her face. She was an Endless that, because she was still only recently made an Endless, was still mostly human; probably somewhere between 75-90 percent human.

"How we know the Words, why they can only be known but not taught, why only certain people know certain Words, and about my previous life, about the Links. About the Gathering and Keyblades and the Door to the Light. I have enough to wonder about just thinking about myself, without having to wonder about the moon and the stars."

She turned her glowing green eyes upward, as if she could see the sky through all the vegetation and wood between them. "But I heard that the stars in the sky are really those worlds closest to you. We see them because, no matter what, all the worlds are connected in some way. One sky, one destiny. That we are never alone, wherever we are."

The woman stood up and began to walk away. Suddenly Clay remembered what she had wanted to ask her.

"How's your husband?"

Clay's friend turned, gray-green face showing surprise and gratitude. "He's fine, now. They had to do open heart surgery on him."

"Sounds serious."

"It was. He had an Aortic Dissection and Aortic Aneurism. He almost died." She shivered, pulling her arms around her. "If we had been only a few minutes late..."

"But you weren't." Clay said firmly. "And now he's ok. So go home and _get some rest._ You won't help anyone by worrying like this."

She watched her friend stumble off in the direction of her home, but Clay knew she probably wouldn't listen to her. She was too stubborn and too much of a worrier to.

Clay walked home. From the top shelf of her room, she pulled a dusty medical book she kept on heart disease and flipped to "Aortic Diseases"

_Aortic Dissection- condition where there is bleeding into and along the wall of the aorta, and may also involve ballooning or widening of the aorta (aneurism) _

_Footnote- Aortic dissection may also be associated with other injury, infection, congenital (present from birth) weakness of the aorta, pseudoxanthoma elasticum, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, relapsing polychondritis, or abdominal aortic aneurysm). Pregnancy, valve disorders (including aortic insufficiency), coarctation of the aorta, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and collagen disorders such as Marfan's Syndrome._

* * *

_What the hell's she doing?_ Kairi questioned. She slipped out the cell and followed the blindfolded woman from above. She looked like she was looking for something. 

Ellos kneeled down, looking at a thin stream of silvery water, only an inch in width. It was so saturated with energy and magic it seemed to be obscured in a multi-hued haze. Runoff from the River of the Dead. Tracing it back to it's source, a large rusty runoff pipe three times as wide as she was tall. Some kind of magic, probably from the waters of the river of the dead, was diminishing her special sight, leaving her with only her normal human vision. Nevertheless, Ellos peered into the darkness inside and swung up into the pipe.

As Ellos walked farther in, voices filled her head and images flashed by her eyes. Voices of the dead, both familiar and strange, filled her head with incoherent babble, mimicing the sound of running water. Her nose wrinkled as the smell of death and cold the waifted up from the river. The voices where getting more disticint, now. She could pick out individual words and phrases. Screams of agony, moans of regret, numbness, dreams both euphoric and harrowing. And over it all, this current, a pulse almost, rang in her ears. She knew she was close, now.

_Come, come to us, you dead. Let us surround you, drown you, wash your weeping until you are dry and hollow of tears. Lay down and wade no more through the troubles of life. Forget all memories, all emotions, all sense of self; they only cause you pain. Soon it will be as if they never existed. _

The pipe she was in branched off into myriad smaller and larger pipes, a veritable labriynth of rusty, creaky metal, the pipes getting older, larger, rustier and more damaged as she progressed. Following the water, which had now increased to a stream several inches wide, Ellos proceeded cautiously now, careful not to step on any spot too weak to hold her weight.

Ellos felt something rush behind her. Turning around quicky, she drew her white gebo and a flashlight, gun pointing forward, curved end resting under her arm, and flashlight on top, beam piercing the darkness, senses straining to detect the creature.

Out of a larger side tunnel, Something large and black rushed her. It's furry, muscular side knocked her over and she felt teeth rip at her shoulder. She caught a glimpse of red eyes before falling into the thin stream of runoff water.

The left of Ellos' coat disentigrated as it touched to water. Quick reflexes were the only thing that saved Ellos from a similar fate. Throwing the rest of the ruined coat off, she noticed that the left side of her oufit under that was aged and threadbare. Glimpsing her flashlight, she turned around just long enough to watch it disentigrate in the water. But not before it cast a lone ray of weak, sputtering light on her retreating enemy.

Drawing her black gebo, now that the other was gone, she reveiwed in her mind what she knew about her enemy, storing it in her mind and looking for possible weaknesses she could exploit and fabricate a plan.

_It's fast._ She thought. _It knows it's way around these tunnels; it knows how to aviod the water and attack unseen from the side. It doesn't rely on sight; either smell or hearing. It's black with red eyes; either heartless or demonic, or both. It's large; it hasn't attacked from a small tunnel yet, and it's legspan is large enough it can move without worring about stepping in the water. It's strong; a four footed mammal. _Ellos winced and felt a burning sensation. _And it slobbered acidic spit on my shoulder._ She reliezed.

That was life for you, always throwing some unknown variables at you that you had to compensate for. She flicked the gebo forward, the blade seperating into it's whip form.

_Come on_. She thought. _Come and get me._ The sunstone in 7-pointed shruken pendant around her neck, bare without her coat, shined brightly and illuminated the tunnel Not till now had she realized it's true hieght. The tunnel could easily fit a two story house in it; but that was not what Ellos meant.

Ellos had read greek mythology and heard of Cerebrus, the guardian of the underworld. But she had not expected this. The creature was a staggering three times as tall as Ellos, jet black. But Ellos had assumed it had one head; this had three. He whole plan had hinged on it having one head.

_Damn. _

Suddenly, the creature lunged at her. The Forgotten had no way to block; her weapon was still in whip form. Instead it tangled her even more hopelessly with Cerebus, who tripped, paws entagled in the whip, and both Forgotten and Dog slid downwards through the tunnel, throwing up water that rusted the metal the instant it touched it.

It was through one of these pieces of newly rusted metal under them that both creatures punched through, into another, larger tunnel below. Cerebus flipped over and grabbed Ellos' shoulder in the teeth of it's middle head, shaking her like a rag doll. Ellos hung on to the handle for dear life now, the whip twined around her, slicing her flesh but at the same time keeping her from flying off and hitting the walls, which would mean instant death. By now both were moving so fast that they continued to puch through the weak metal walls of the tunnels, going in a straight trajectory downward.

Ellos screamed in pain as the dog finally reached bone and bit down, shattering her shoulder, her last gebo flying out of her hand as he did so. Silently thanking Strife, she drew out her last knife, the pocket knife he had given her for her birthday, and stabbed blindly at his eyes, so close to the source of the River of the Dead her eyesight was truly human now, and with the blindfold she was truly blind.

Suddenly, she heard and inhuman howl and felt the crushing pressure of the dog's jaws leave her shoulder. Not waiting to see why, she blindly groped for it's jaw and found it, putting her left foot on it's nose and grabbing to jaw with her right, undamaged arm, and yanked it right out of the skull.

Suddenly they hit dirt. Ellos flew off, the fall destroying her other arm too. Ellos winced as she felt the Full Cure spell, which while not strong enough to fully cure the wounds, take care of the hellhound's acidic spit. Stumbling up, she listened to try to find her opponent.

Cerebus paced closer. It's three heads, through individually dumb, togeather where smart enough to noiselessly pad over to Ellos, sensing it's prey was sightless, wounded, and disoriented.

But because of Full Cure, Ellos recovered faster than Cerebus expected. Before the hound reached her, Ellos was already on her feet. She only needed a general direction to do what she did next.

Ellos' astral self shot from her in a blue haze. At the same time, She concentrated on her Sunstone, which let forth a blast of light which blinded the creature.

The astral projection sped forward and grabbed the handle of the black gebo. She yanked it free from the creature, hamstringing it in the process. The Hellhound collapsing, It snapped the gebo back from a whip to a sword, then brought it down on the center head, slicing it from the body cleaning in one stroke. She turned it into a whip again and wrapped it around the left head. Shifting the handle to her right claw, it then drew it's own weapon; a spiked mace with a chain twice as long as it was, make of the same substance as it was, only blindingly luminesent. She expertly flicked it around the neck of the right head, and pulled on both, yanking the heads up.

Then, like the domestic dogs it's so closely resembled, the creature lay down, putting it's severed stump between it's legs and whining piteously.

Using every last ounce of strenght to keep her astral self manifest, Ellos spoke. "Bad Dog" She said, dizzy from blood loss. "Bad, Bad Dog." The creature winded even more piteously, if possible, and turned it's remaining two faces upward to Ellos in a grotesque imitation of a sad puppy-dog face. The cauterized stump, still trying to whine even though it's head was gone, managed a gurgling sound and began to bleed over it's paws. "We woun't _ever_ try to kill me again. Understood?" The dog nodded again. "Now. Go away." At that moment, the astral self melted away, it's ower unable to maintain it anymore. Eager not to lose another head, the once mighty Guardian of the Gates of Hell slunk off, tail between it's legs. It shook off the black gebo and occasionally looked back at Ellos, puppy dog eyes pleading approval from what it percieved as it's new master.

"GO!" Ellos croaked out with her last once of consciousness. Cerebus finally dissapeared. Ellos hunched over, but when she went unconscious she could not tell; after all, it was already black behind her blindfold.

* * *

"Over here!" Kairi yelled. She held up Ellos' white gebo for Yuna to see. 

"Still fully loaded." Kairi said, feeling the weight of the bullets still in the weapon.

"Hey, look at this." Tidus yelled from farther down. Keeping the gebo, Kairi carefully walked back down the pipe, not wanting to slip and slide down the rusty pipe, or worse, into the river water. Peering over Tidus' kneeled form, she saw long gorges in the rivited pipe, where something large and heavy had slid downwards though a large hole, near which Tidus was kneeling. He pointed to the still-sharp, rust free ends. "just made."

Peering down, Kairi saw a multitude of holes puncing straight down through the pipes into a large cavern below. Beside her, Yuna cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled down...

"HELLO! ANYONE DOWN THERE?" The echoes caused the pipes to shake slightly, but no reply was heard. "I SAID..."

Kairi put a finger to her lips, signaling silence. She heard a scraping sound, and a low, pitieous whine. Tidus hearing it too, he waved both of them into a side tunnel.

Cerebrus came through the tunnel, a new head already growing on the stump of the original one. The other two heads whined, the dog showing every sign of self-pity and shame as it slunk off, tail between it's legs, to it's lair to lick it's wounds. Yuna looked in dread and Kairi in amazement as it passed.

Once it was gone, Yuna turned to Kairi. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She asked, dreading the answer.

"I think she may have beat it." Kairi said, disbelief in her voice. Yuna sighed; she knew the chances of Ellos beating Cerebrus where slim and expected her to be dead. But what she feared was that Kairi would get her hopes up too much, only to be let down. Kairi had told Yuna about her dream; Yuna knew that Kairi thought Ellos was the girl that had been in it, even though Yuna knew that was impossible. Now her hopes would be dashed when she realized Ellos was dead; as well as any slim change that Ellos might bring of escape.

* * *

"Hades was right. You do have a talent for survival." 

Ellos moaned, finally regaining conciousness, her hunched position helping her blood to keep circulating and keep conscious. Her eyes felt funny; she reliezed it was because the conforting wieght of her blindfold was not there, her eyes bare. She squeezed them shut, embarrased to show them to someone she did not know.

Concentrating but not breaking her hunched position, Ellos tired to reach into the charter and failed. Concentrating, she relized it was not from her lack of energy, but because the charter itself was not there. She tried again.

Instead of the comforting charter, she was thrust into a living malestorm of living fire, threatening to burn her body as much as it could maim her mind. Realizing what she had stumbled upon, she pulled herself out before she could do any damage to her already broken body. She had stumbled across free magic, not charter, something that had only happened to her when she had traveled with the Abhorsen through the gates of the River of the Dead.

Instead, she consentrated on her pendant. It didn't just have marks of protection on it; it also served as something like a Charter Stone, a way into the charter so that she could access it without a charter mark. She withdrew the needed marks and let them settle on her, combining them with the sunstone light that Ellos knew strenghtened the marks.

Finally, Ellos straightened up, looking for the speaker now that she wasn't dying. Her eyes fell on a tall man, in red and black clothes with white hair and green eyes. She reconized him as the man who had pulled her from the river when she had arrived here. He smirked. "Ironic, meeting you here again."

Suddenly, Ellos understood where she was. Turning around and opening her eyes, careful to make sure the white-haired swordsman didn't see them, Ellos looked down at the river of the dead, which spiraled downwards lazily into untold depths. She heard the roar of a waterfall in the distance; This River of the Dead, like the one in the Old Kingdom, was divided into precincts. That was why she had only been able to channel free magic; this was not just the River of the Dead from Hades' world, but from the Old Kingdom as well.

Ellos reached into her pocket and withdrew a jem, completely clear but blazing with charter marks and white light inside. One of the worlds she had visited durring her two years in the present world had been the Old Kingdom. She managed to expand her knowledge of both Nemocracy, Charter, and Free magic under the tutorage of the Abhorsen, but it had fallen to the Mindless.

But she had made sure not all of that world was lost. She had saved parts of the hearts of three inhabitants of that world, and when she landed on Twilight Town, she finally had enough munny to take those hearts to a powerful wizard and change them into summonings. One day, she would find a way to bring them back fully.

She squeezed her eyes shut, the dim lighting still to strong for her sensitive eyes. She turned to the white-haired man, rubbing her temples to delay the light-induced migrane that would inevitably form. "Who are you?"

"Dante." He looked at her, evidently expecting her to offer her name as well.

"Ellos. Could I have my blindfold back?"

Dante handed over the blindfold. "You shouldn't hide them"

"Why?"

"Because you don't seem like the kind of person who hides their true self from the world."

"It has to do with that talent for survival you spoke of." Ellos replied. "People usually don't like to see my eyes."

"They're unusual, but nothing I didn't expect."

Shrugging, Ellos stood up, went over to and picked up her black gebo, and walked over to the bank of the river. Wondering what she was going to do, Dante watched her from his vantage point, unaware of Tidus, Yuna, and Kairi behind him.

* * *

_Funny, How one thing can completely change your perspective of a person. They don't change physically; the change is inside your own heart. _

_Ellos had been friends with Strife for well over a year now. She'd seen him everyday; but now she noticed something new in Strife's frame. A wieght; not a physical one, but from a wrong. One that caused him an endless cycle of guilt and doubt that he had become all too adept at hiding. And a wound, one of the heart, something she could feel with her forgotten senses. His heart seemed...incomplete, somehow. _

_And the most pathetic thing about it was...Ellos had to trust him. True, he may be flawed, untrustworthy; but he was the only one she had that cared for her. There was simply nobody else. Anyone else who she might trust had long since died, or left; Ellos too was flawed and untrustworthy, even more so than Strife. _

_Because at least Strife showed guilt and a desire for repentance for his wrong. Ellos had long since ceased to feel such things or express such a desire. She had never even thought of destroying her humanity as wrong; just survival. Now, that she met Strife and saw that he, too, had experienced a similar loss of humanity and human dignity. But he tried to regain it, showing her it's importance that she had long since forgot. As flawed as he was, he was still better than her. _

Maybe everything truly is relative_ Ellos thought. Despite anything he might have done, he and his friendship was still better than anything she deserved._

_Ellos sat up and began to walk toward the gummi ship. She needed time to herself. Maybe she would go to one of the other ages, explore. She had always been curious about other ages, but never really had the time; there was always something else she needed to do. _

Why am I doing this?_ Ellos questioned herself. _Why do I want to see other ages? Worlds?_ She did not think her motivation was simply curiousity any longer. Perhaps it was because of hope. Hope that somewhere out there, her salvation lay. Somewhere, where life was easy, so she would not have to be heartless, to constantly fight to survive. Where she, too, could seek her humanity and dignity lost. Find a purpose and meaning beyond mere survival and killing. To find her heart, her true self. She may have been born as something else, but she could at least, in her heart, be a human. _

* * *

_My soul thirsts for salvation, as does my body for life's breath. _

- Magic the Gathering, _Ihsan's Shade_

* * *

Adalai- grrrr...sorry about the lateness. I had a choir thing I had to do Friday night and couldn't post. Sephy, Disclaimer! 

Sephiroth- R&R, please.


	18. Chpt 18: River of the Dead

Lightbringer: Chpt. 18: The River of the Dead

Adalai- ah...yahhhh! (_runs away_)

Sephiroth- uh...Who is she running from?

(_sees_ _another woman come through chasing Adalai with a bottle of febreeze_.)

Stinky- her mom. Sometimes in the morning she tries to spray her down with febreeze...

Adalai- (_from far off in the distance_)- I've been frebreezed! _IT BURNS! **OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, IT BBUURRNNNSSSS! **_

Stinky- I guess I better do the disclaimer...Adalai does not own Disney, Square, or Febreeze. She doesn't even own the febreeze bottle; it belongs to her brother (her mom got the bleach). And a note; this chapter can be hard to follow; the first part is one of Scion's memories in the River of the Dead, from when he was in Castle Oblivion. Then it goes to him waking up. Then one of Clay's memories, ending just as she wakes up with Scion. I skipped the part between Scion waking up and the end of last chapter because, well, nothing really big happens. There's no quote at the end this time; the lines from Evanesence's _Bring me to life_ between the second and third sections will be my quote this time. They just seemed to fit better there.

* * *

"Who are you looking for?"

Scion turned, looking at the girl before him. She was basically a female version of him; long blonde hair that reached down to her shoulderblades, sapphire blue eyes.

"I don't know, but you remind me of her. The way you walk, the way you hold your hands behind your, in the small of your back."

She spoke. "We come from the same heart. I guess...I'm the memories Sora has of that girl. And you...you're the part of him that loves her."

"Watch."

Holding out her hand, she saw the air move, shift and change. Take the form of a girl with bright red hair and sapphire blue eyes.

Mouth open, he looked at her, shocked. It was the girl! The one he was looking for!

"How...How did..."

The blonde girl smiled. "She's just a hologram. A picture. If you work harder, you can add memories to it, character, give it freedom of thought and speech, a body, even if you work hard enough. But it will just be a shell. But if you become a Nobody...you could use those memories we have of her and make a heart."

Scion tentatively reached out to touch the hologram's face. The skin shivered for a moment, ripples spreading across it as if it were water. Then it dipped down, forming a bowl around his finger. The hologram smiled, blue eyes sparkling. It seemed so familiar yet so strange. He felt oddly as if she was there, because he knew, instinctively, that that was her real smile. It made him feel as if a knife twisted in his stomach.

"But it wouldn't be her, would it? Even if we remembered every detail of Sora's life with her, there are still things about he we wouldn't know. The deeper, secret things that are the most important to the development of her character. It would be like her, but not her."

Scion turned to the reflection. "Teach me how to do that."

"It's simple, really. It has to do with the fabric of the In-Between Place. The fabric of the present world is rigid and diverse. Instead of one type of building block, there are many. Many types of atoms, combining into many types of things. But each combination can only be only that one thing and no other. Things are separate from each other, not connected; worlds unto themselves. Each atom is separate, each object, each world. They're interaction with each other is governed by strict rules, inhibited. Specifically the rule of locality; we only affect those things near to us. The present world is a lonely, divided, place.

The In-Between Place is the Present World's complete opposite. Every bit and piece is completely the same; every atom, world, object. This fabric is not rigid but flexible and identical. They have no individuality, blending seamlessly into each other; they are all like entangled particles. What happens to one instantly happens to the other instantly, no matter where they are in the universe. Faster than light; in fact, faster than time itself.

What makes them different is perception. If you perceive them to be a certain way, they will be a certain way. The only rules are the ones you make. They're not local; affecting one bit is like dropping a stone in a pond; it ripples outward, one drop affecting all the others. Except instead of fading, the ripples are uniform, effecting every other piece equally, regardless of were they are.

So what are you going to choose? Endless or Nobody?"

"Nobody. I want to find her."

She smiled. "It's not really a question of Nobody or Endless when you choose. It's whether or not you want to remember or forget. Nobody can change things in the In-Between World and move wherever they want between the three worlds; and they have their other selves; they are the ones who want to hold onto themselves, their pasts, to change the future but what they have learned. That's why they calculate, why they manipulate. Every single one has a sad story, a tragedy that made them as they are, and they spend their lives making sure the same thing isn't repeated. Why they keep to themselves.

The Endless can change their bodies to what they will. They can create things in the present world; ages, objects, hearts, ect, simply by writing a "link" a sort of add-on that describes a thing, age, object, rule, slice of space and time, in a highly descriptive language, so complicated it cannot be taught but only parts of it can be unlocked in their hearts when they become Endless. Depending on the part unlocked, they can make different links; some can fold space and time, some manipulate and create energy, some create new life, others make hearts and the things associated with them; worlds, people, keyblade. The last kind is the rarest and most powerful of all. But they have to follow the rule of where they make the object appear. They can't make a perpetual motion machine or anything impossible like that. They are the ones...who want to forget, who want to change. That's why they isolate themselves, choose certain worlds, foster, guard, and guide the inhabitants, watch they're growth throughout the millennia. They're more isolated, but at the same time, more public. They integrate with normal humans in the Ages they inhabit."

"One way to make something real is to call it's name. Call it enough and what you want will appear. Because you name is the only thing that cannot be taken from you. It is the word for yourself. The Endless' language has an individual name for every atom, every grain of sand, every drop of water. It defines you as yourself. So if you call its name, it will eventually appear..."

* * *

And then the memory faded out.

_Kairi_. He realized. That was her name. _Kairi, Kairi, Kairi, Kairi, Kairi._ He repeated, mantra-like, as if the repetition could call her to him as it would have in the In-Between Place.

_Wake me up inside. _He thought-screamed as much to her as to the darkness inside himself. _Call my name and save me from the dark. Bring me to life. _He didn't want to remember anymore. He wanted to forget.

* * *

_Without a soul...My spirit's sleeping somewhere cold. _

_Frozen in time... Without a thought, a voice, a soul_

_All this time, I couldn't see...Kept in the dark, but you would never follow me._

_I've been living a lie...There's nothing inside. _

_Before I become undone...Save me from the nothing I've become _

_Now that I know what I'm without...Make me real...breathe me to life._

* * *

"**SORA!" **

The word reverberated in his ears, jarring him from his unnatural sleep. His eyelids fluttered weakly, all the energy sapped from him by the waters of the dead.

He felt someone forcing him to do something he hadn't done in a long time; breathe. Not being alive he no longer needed to do it, but he felt hands pushing down on his stomach, making him exhale, and lips on his, breathing air into his lungs, making him inhale.

"Kairi, stop. Kairi!" a familiar voice said as he felt Kairi's lips leave his.

Cracking open his eyes, he looked around. They were on a boat of some kind, deep in the river of the dead. Far off in the distance, he heard the roar of the last gate of the seven precincts far off in the distance. Unlike the rest of the precincts, this one, the last one, felt surprisingly open and full of light, the water only ankle deep. It lacked the despair and gloom that had marked the rest of the river.

His eyes searched the owner of that familiar voice and his eyes found two individuals. Both appeared sightless, but he knew that both saw more than ordinary sight could.

The first was an old man, bent and ancient, hand on the tilter and guiding the boat with an ease that spoke of familiarity with these strange waters. He had no eyes; they had been plucked out and replaced with gold coins.

Suddenly a familiar voice broke his concentration. "Sora? Is that you?" He turned to face the speaker.

She looked almost exactly as she had 2 years ago, except older, different clothes, and longer hair, when the reflection had conjured up her appearance from his memory. Hesitantly, he reached out to touch her face, to see if she was real or if he was still dreaming.

His hand went right through her cheek, just as it had through the hologram. She smiled sadly. "We had to leave our bodies behind. If we came with them on the river, they would have instantly turned to dust." She shivered from the memory. "It felt so painful; like someone was slowly yanking your heart out of your body." Which was exactly what had happened to her, Scion knew. She was now half Nobody, in body if not in heart. Now that the bonds between her heart and body were broken, they would manifest in the 6 Nobody bodies. It filled him with an irrational sadness, as if his darkness has somehow defiled her.

"He is a Nobody. He does not breathe because he is already dead."

Tentatively, Kairi reached out and touched the skin on his wrist and gasped. It was ice cold and she couldn't feel a pulse. Hearing it, he turned toward her, wanting to comfort her, reassure her, do _something_, but he couldn't find the words. She looked at him, but unlike so many people, there was no fear or pity in her eyes, only compassion at his unnatural state of un-life. "Can you feel...anything?"

"Yes." He said. He wanted to touch her, feel her warm skin, but was afraid she would shudder or cringe from his own ice-cold flesh. But he did not have to be; she snuggled close into his side, running her arm up and down his back vigorously, as if trying to warm him. Feeling her against him, he realized that without her body, she was just a cold as he was.

Kairi felt him relax against her side. When they returned to the shore, she would be living and he would still be dead; that barrier would exist between them, whenever she felt the nip of his cold flesh, reminding her that he was dead and she was living. She had found each other after years of searching, only to find that they could never be together, that they could never love each other.

But for now, on this boat, they were both dead; that barrier didn't exist. For a short time she could feel his skin without it feeling cold. She could love him without the fact that he was dead mattering. He pulled an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. She, in turn looked up into his eyes. "How long do we have?" he asked.

"We can extend it to an hour if you want. But no longer. Charon has other passengers that need to be attended to."

Scion looked up, expecting to see the speaker's usual blindfolded countenance; instead he saw an astral body. It took two munny from it's pocket and handed them to the old man; grinning from glee, he polished them on his rags and popped out the old coins, revealing bone-white sockets, and popped the two new munny coins into them.

Astral bodies always took on the appearance of their owner's physical body; but its body didn't match the human body Scion knew its owner to have. It had long, raptor-like claws on its hands and feet, an elongated mouth filled with needle-sharp teeth, a tail tipped with a three-clawed hand and two leathery wings, and a large flower-shaped organ on the side of the head. The green in her eyes were gone, replaced by its owner's true eyes.

"So that's your normal eyes, Ellos?"

Not answering, she turned around and summoned a woman, a few years older than Ellos, with long black hair, brown eyes, several bells hanging from pouches attached to a belt that went over her shoulder and sideways across her chest. Razing her hands into the air, she began to chant free magic, one hand normal and the other made of what looked like metal.

Kairi leaned against Scion, nauseous and sweating. The taste of iron filled her mouth and bile rose in her throat. To her surprise, she felt Scion's hand on her bare flesh between her skirt and her blouse, gently stroking the skin with his palm and fingertips. His touch made her vertigo disappear. She sat there, savoring the feel of his hands on her and his arm around her for a while and then raised her head, looking in his eyes. She knew he would not make the first move; Sora had always been shy about his feelings for her, thinking she couldn't see them when in fact everyone could. Gazing into them, she tilted her head up and pressed her lips against his in a chaste kiss.

To her surprise, he kissed her back deeply, stroking her cheek with his thumb. She broke the kiss, gasping for breath and resting her head on his collarbone. His arms were wrapped around her shoulders and back, head bent protectively over hers. He buried his face in her red hair.

Fate is an ironic thing, is it not? It seems to go out of its way to make you unhappy. Thank god for irony, so we can at least find humor in these things. Only minutes ago, he couldn't wait to get out of here. Now he didn't want to leave.

* * *

Ellos looked at Kairi and Scion kiss, and it was at that moment she decided that she would sign Hades' contract. Something about their love, their closeness, made her long for that kind of intimacy, that care and love from and to another person. Ellos had never really experienced that kind of thing before; she had no parents to love her, no experience or teaching about it, never seen it in her fellow Forgotten in Kingdom Hearts.

Before this she had wanted to be free to experience new things, but now she wanted that freedom to be able to experience something like the love that existed between Scion and Kairi, a feeling so strong and lasting that it was able to bind them together and keep them searching for each other, even after 4 years. After all, a month wasn't that long to wait for your freedom.

She just wanted to be loved. But who in their right mind would love someone like her?

* * *

"I'm pregnant!" The figure sang over and over, skipping happily over the path to Clay's house.

Clay yawned, woken by the woman's yells. She stretched, yawned, and went over to the window, only to see her friend's face pressed right up against the glass.

"Yeek!" She said as she jumped back from the window. "Don't do that, you scared me to death!"

the grey-skinned girl merely laughed. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"I'm pregnant! I'm due in June!"

"That's great! Now we have to plot and plan to have...a surprise baby shower! Have you decided on a name? The Godparents?"

Her friend grinned, holding up her hands. "Slow down, slow down! Your definitely going to be one of the godparents. If it's a girl, it'll be Elizabeth, and if a boy, we'll call him Vincent. Sound good?"

Clay grinned. "Yeah."

"I also wanted to ask you a favor."

"What?"

"You know that my husband was diagnosed with Marfan's recently, right?"

Clay nodded. "Marfan's is autosomal dominant. That gives your baby a 50/50% chance of inheriting it. You want to test for it?"

Her friend nodded, hands crossed in front of her stomach protectively. "God I hope she doesn't have it- I don't want her to have to go through the same thing he did."

Clay nodded. She knew the 'he' referred to her husband.

_Could that have possibly been Ellos? Ellos...Elizabeth...Why am I seeing this now?_

* * *

_Ellos backed up, getting a running start and then threw herself across the chasm, sliding on the slick dry ice. She brushed the chips of ice off her many layers of clothes and peered out from behind a thing bone visor, with small slits for eyeholes to protect from the glare. _

_The age she had found herself on was very different from Yul. She had decided to call it RashinÄ³a. Like Yul, it had the same kind of sun; enough radiation to burn your weak, fleshy sack of water clean, but there the similarities ended. _

_Rashinija was covered by a sea of liquid oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, water, and various other gasses and liquids. The surface of that sea was covered by ice; a complex maze of caverns, channels, crevices, and other pitfalls and natural traps. This frozen surface was was every bit as dangerous and schizoid as Yul. Both had poisonous gases, breaking through from under the ice in geysers, expanding as the liquid became gas. There were blizzards a hundred times more powerful than earth, lightning storms, and hurricanes. Instead of ashfall, there was snowfall made from dry ice, which was just as harmful. Deceptively thin crusts of ice over chasms, ionic disturbances and gravity wells, explosions from chemicals under the ice meeting the air, and flows of super-cold water and ice. And there was the sunrise, which liquefied the ice on the daytime side; therefore Ellos was constantly on the move, staying in the twilight, habitable band between day and night. _

_Also, the atmosphere of the age, unlike Yul, was thick and opaque, letting no light onto it's frozen surface. Ellos had to rely on hearing, smell, and touch, to navigate in the desert of ice. _

_But sometimes, rarely, when sunrise was about to hit, the bombardment of the thick atmosphere with radiation from it's sun cause an aurora to appear in the sky. Ellos had never seen such a thing on Yul; Yul didn't have the magnetic field needed to produce an aurora. So she would stop and watch it any chance she could get. Also, it gave the added benefit of light, allowing her to see. _

_That was what she did, most of the time; lived in the gummi ship, flying out farther when the sunrise came to close, reading, and watching the aurora. And waiting. Waiting for something to happen, waiting for a sign, waiting for something and not knowing what it was. _

_It would be a month before her wait would end. _

* * *

Adalai (smelling surprisingly fresh)- and...done. Stinky!

Stinky- R&R, please.


End file.
